og, that have
long been under the tutelage of man, of course show more independent
power of thought than the uneducated beasts of the fields and woods.

The plant is wise in all ways to reproduce and perpetuate itself; see
the many ingenious devices for scattering seed. In the animal world
this intelligence is most keen and active in the same direction. The
wit of the animal comes out most clearly in looking out for its food
and safety. We are often ready to ascribe reason to it in feats shown
in these directions.

In man alone does this universal intelligence or mind-stuff reach out
beyond these primary needs and become aware of itself. What the plant
or the animal does without thought or rule, man takes thought about.
He considers his ways, I noticed that the scallops in the shallow
water on the beach had the power to anchor themselves to stones or to
some other object, by putting out a little tough but elastic cable
from near the hinge, and that they did so when the water was rough;
but I could not look upon It as an act of conscious or individual
intelligence on the part of the bivalve. It was as much an act of the
general intelligence to which I refer as was its hinge or its form.
But when the sailor anchors his ship, that is another matter. He
thinks about it, he reasons from cause to effect, he sees the storm
coming, he has a fund of experience, and his act is a special
individual act.

The muskrat builds its house instinctively, and all muskrats build
alike. Man builds his house from reason and forethought. Savages build
as nearly alike as the animals, but civilized man shows an endless
variety. The higher the intelligence, the greater the diversity.

The sitting bird that is so solicitous to keep its eggs warm, or to
feed and defend its young, probably shows no more independent and
individual intelligence than the plant that strives so hard to mature
and scatter its seed. A plant will grow toward the light; a tree will
try to get from under another tree that overshadows it; a willow will
run its roots toward the water: but these acts are the results of
external stimuli alone.

When I go to pass the winter in a warmer climate, the act is the
result of calculation and of weighing pros and cons. I can go, of I
can refrain from going. Not so with the migrating birds. Nature plans
and thinks for them; it is not an individual act on the part of each;
it is a race instinct: they must go; the life of the race dem