132 
THE SCIENTIST. 
Written for the Scientist. 
Intuition- 
By Julia Brown Strode, 
That which is termed instinct in animals 
is known as intuition in man. Intuition 
sprang from instinct. It is higher than in- 
stinct. It is conscious instinct. Intuition is 
thi mind's invisible attachment, as it were 
to the source of all wisdom. "It is a secret 
that every intellectual man quickly learns." 
Says Emerson, "that beyond the energy 
of his possessed and conscious intellect, he is 
capable cf a new energy, (as of an intellect 
doubled on itself,) that, besides his privacy 
of power as an individual man, there is al- 
ways a great public power, on which he can 
draw by unlocking, at all risks his human 
doois, and suffering the etherial tides to roll 
and circulate through him." Not all men 
are aware of this public power to which they 
have access, or are capable of throwing wide 
the human doors that its rich stream of know- 
ledge may decend into them, and if it enters 
unbidden, unconscious of its value, they de- 
cide upon its information by the power of 
reason. Reason is a development of 
man's private intellect. 
It is that faculty which decides upon ail 
questions submitted to the human mind for 
judgment. Reason, rather than intuition, 
has been the acknowledged guide of the in- 
tellect for ages. It has been an aid to man's 
advancement, and at times a cause of his de- 
cline. It can be used either for good or evil, 
defend right or wrong. 
The wrong doer is often justified by the 
close reasoning lawyer. To reason we are 
indebted for the most useful inventions as 
well as the crudest devices of torture. 
Reason studies, weighs, decides. Intuition 
perceives. Yet I by no means wish to de- 
preciate the value of human reason, though, 
it is of intellect not of spirit, of head not of 
heart. It has its high and mighty office and 
its inestimable value as one of the powers. 
But for years man has sought to develop the 
reasoning faculties while he has ignored in- 
tuition. He has depended upon the reason- 
ing power alone, seldom consciously availing 
himself of intuition, knowledge or instinct, 
until he is hardly conscious of possessing 
such a faculty, or if aware of its presence, 
has more or less ceased to obey its voice. 
Unless strongly individualized, he allows 
himself to be more often guided by forces 
and opinions from without than by this inner 
sense. Yet it is a faculty by no means dor- 
mant, and, although ignored, it is even yet 
in a thousand ways his unacknowledged 
guide. It is the true inner light of every 
man. For you it may shine on one path, 
for myself it may illuminate another. But 
those paths we had rather travel, you, your 
path, I mine, for they lead to the goal of our 
genius. You would learn of the stars. In- 
tuition whispers a knowledge of I hem unat- 
tainable by other men until a desire for such 
knowledge has seized upon them as strongly 
as upon yourself. Then will it speak to 
them. And so of all knowledge in what- 
ever field. You would know truth. Be- 
lieve me, it is already within your own be- 
ing decended from the divine mind, as it 
were, and seeks to reveal itself to your in- 
telligence. The desire for it is proof of its 
presence within you. But we toil unremit- 
tingly, we reason unceasingly, we give the 
most violent directions to our will, we wrestle 
with all past knowledge and experience, and 
see aid from their teaching, or else we kneel, 
and beg, and conform, and become, nay are 
pensioners of the ideas of other men, instead 
of insistmg on a revelation of the truths 
within ourselves. It is there obedient to our 
intelligent demand. Seek that which you 
would know dilligently, then allow the in- 
tellect to rest, put yourself in a passive state, 
and that which you seek will surely reveal 
itself to you accompanied by other and cor- 
respond ingt ruths. 
Who has not sought to reason out a prob. 
lem or searched with absorbing assiduity 
after some truth without avail? Then sud- 
denly in the still hours of the night, or at 
some qniet time when the mind is passive. 
