WAYS OF NATURE 



Animals are wise as Nature is wise; they partake, 

 each in its own measure, of that universal intelli- 

 gence, or mind-stuff, that is operative in all things 

 — in the vegetable as well as in the animal world. 

 Does the body, or the life that fills it, reason when 

 it tries to get rid of, or to neutralize the effects of, a 

 foreign substance, like a bullet, by encysting it ? or 

 when it thickens the skin on the hand or on any 

 other part of the body, even forming special pads 

 called callosities, as a result of the increased wear or 

 friction ? This may be called physiological intelli- 

 gence. 



But how blind tliis intelligence is at times, or how 

 wanting in judgment, may be seen when it tries to 

 develop a callosity upon the foot as a result of the 

 friction of the shoe, and overdoes the matter and 

 produces the corn. The corn is a physiological blun- 

 der. Or see an unexpected manifestation of this 

 intelligence when we cut off the central and leading 

 shoot of a spruce or of a pine tree, and straightway 

 one of the lateral and horizontal branches rises up, 

 takes the place of the lost leader, and carries the 

 tree upward ; or in the roots of a tree working their 

 way through the ground much like molten metal, 

 parting and uniting, taking the form of whatever 

 object they touch, shaping themselves to the rock, 

 flowing into its seams, the better to get a grip upon 

 the earth and thus maintain an upright position. 



In the animal world this foresight becomes psychic 

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