be 
tecture. 
NEST MAKING: ITS ORIGIN AND USE. 335 
the caddis fly builds over her body her tiled tube of shells or pebbles, or 
covers it with thatched moss, for the same purpose. The animated body of 
sarcode known as a Rhizopod evidently is moved by the desire 
Common to preserve its protoplasmic structure, when it gathers diatoms 
nye and bits of sand from which to rear She itself its beautiful 
architectural armor or encasing wall. The nest making spider, 
Epeira trifolium or Theridium riparium, is manifestly moved by the same 
disposition to shelter the soft abdomen, which is the most assailable and 
vulnerable part of her body. 
From the lowest form of Rhizopod, through these more highly organ- 
ized insects and arachnids, we may ascend to man, who occupies the sum- 
mit of the zoological pyramid, the crown and king of creation, 
Man’s and note the same outcome of life. In the great cathedrals 
Archi- which he rears to the Almighty, or in the humble cottages 
which he builds, alike in stone wall, in tiled or shingled or 
thatched roof, we may see the methods of his humbler fellows of the 
creature world, only carried out upon a loftier scale and with a nobler 
purpose. 
Thus, in the nesting architecture of living things, the naturalist may 
see, aS on so many other fields of observation, the harmony which per- 
vades creation. 
“From harmony, from heayenly harmony, 
This universal frame began : 
From harmony to harmony, 
Through all the compass of the notes it ran, 
The diapason closing full on Man.” 
What is the meaning of this harmony? By what dominating Force, 
through what natural laws has it been accomplished and is it main- 
tained? These are problems which have occupied the thoughts 
of students of nature, and upon which they have honestly and 
earnestly divided. We may indulge the hope that when the 
realm of life has been sufficiently explored, from the larger knowledge of 
facts there may issue, in this matter also, substantial harmony. 
By whatever theory one may account for these facts, certainly the facts 
themselves show that an unexpected degree of harmony pervades all the 
home building industry of the smaller creatures that inhabit the globe in 
common with more highly organized animals. The traces everywhere ap- 
pear of one common origin, or (as many would prefer to express it) of one 
Originating Mind, whose Will, the source of all natural forces, is expressed 
in the infinite variety of forms and methods which these natural forces are 
Universal 
Harmony 
working and haye wrought through all the ages of time. 
