THEFOURKINGDOMS 79
communicate with these spirits of the animal species and
finds them much more intelligent than a large percent of
human beings. He can see the marvelous insight they display
in marshaling the animals which are their physical bodies.
It is the spirit of the group which gathers its flocks of
birds in the fall and compels them to migrate to the south,
neither too early nor too late to escape the winter's chilly
blast; that directs their return in the spring, causing them to
fly at just the proper altitude, which differs for the different
species.
The group-spirit of the b ea ver teaches it to build its da m
across a stream at exactly the proper angle. It considers the
rapidit y of t he flow, and all the circu mstances, precis ely as a
skilled engineer would do, showing that it is as up-to-date in
every particular of the craft as the college-bred, technically-
educated man. It is the wisdom of the group-spirit that
directs the building of the hexagon cell of the bee with such
geometrical nicety; that teaches the snail to fashion its house
in an accurate, beautiful spiral; that teaches the ocean
mollusk the art of decorating its iridescent shell. Wisdom,
wisdom everywhere! So grand, so great that one who looks
with an observant eye is filled with amazement and
reverence.
At this point the thought will naturally occur that if the
animal group-spirit is so wise, considering the short period
of evolution of the animal as compared with that of man,
why does not the latter display wisdom to a much greater
degree and why must man be taught to build dams and
geometrize, all of which the group-spirit does without being
taught?
The answer to that question has to do with the descent of
the Universal Spirit into matter of ever-increasing density. In