There is no god that pities us or weeps over our sufferings, save the
god in our own breasts. We have life on heroic terms. Nature does not
baby us nor withhold from us the bitter cup. We take our chances with
all other forms of life. Our special good fortune is that we are capable
of a higher development, capable of profiting to a greater extent by
experience, than are the lower forms of life. And here is the mystery
that has no solution: we came out of the burning nebulæ just as our
horse and dog, but why we are men and they are still horse and dog we
owe to some Power, or, shall I say, to the chance working of a multitude
of powers, that are beyond our ken. That some Being willed it, designed
it, no; yet it was in some way provided for in the constitution of the
world.
THE END
INDEX
Agassiz, Louis, 168, 169.
Air, light and heavy, 72, 73.
Albatross, 38.
Animal life, abundance, 11, 12.
Antlers, 201.
Ants, 11.
Army trucks, 110, 111.
Arum, 196.
Automobile trip, 109-26.
Bacon, Francis, 186.
Barton, W. Va., 119.
Bee, honey, spirit of the hive, 152, 158-62;
intelligence, 156, 157;
communication, 159, 160;
their world, 161;
sting, 165.
Bee, leaf-cutter, 14, 15.
Beech, autumn color, 3.
Birds, living with, 31;
flight, 32-38;
and cats, 56;
nesting near houses, 54-59;
home sense, 59;
nests of most species built by the females, 64, 65;
and dead trees, 84, 85;
song, 86;
at Pine Knot, Va., 102-05;
of southern California, 129-32;
community of mind in flocks, 153, 154.
Birds' nests, finding, 79-81.
Bluebird, endearing qualities, 43;
nesting, 43, 44, 54;
experience with a pair, 44-48.
Bobolink, song flight, 38, 85.
Bolar Springs, 117.
Brain, as organ of the mind, 22, 23.
Buffon, Georges Louis Le Clerc, 157.
Bumble-bee, carpenter, 36.
Bunting, indigo, nesting, 90, 91.
Bunting, painted, 114.
Butterflies, flight, 34;
flocking, 155.
Butterfly, monarch, 34, 35, 155.
Buzzard, turkey, 32-34.
Cacti, 143-48.
California, southern, observations in, 127-51;
coast, 127;
mountains, 127, 128;
climate and soil, 128;
bird-song, 128, 129;
birds, 129-32;
change of climate in, 210-12.
Cambium layer, 5, 6.
Carpenter, W. B., quoted, 194.
Catbird, 30;
stealthiness, 60, 67, 68;
experience with a pair, 60-66;
fondness for butter, 66;
theatrical, 68;
notes, 87.
Caterpillars, 91-94.
Causes, 165-67.
Cedar-bird, 65.
Chance, in animal life, 208, 209.
Cheat River, W. Va., 116.
Chipmunks, two in a den, 11;
storing currants, 17;
carrying provender, 96, 97.
Chippie. _See_ Sparrow, chipping.
Chlorophyll, 190, 191.
Chrysalis, 12.
Condor, 33, 34.
Connellsville, Pa., 113.
Cormorant, 132.
Cosmos, the, order and harmony of, 191-93.
Cow, 205.
Crow, flight, 37;
needs no great wing-power, 180.
Crow, fish, 55, 56, 68.
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