<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class="">Self-Protection<div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; color: rgb(53, 53, 53); font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial;" class="">When science starts to be interpretive<br class="">It is more unscientific even than mysticism.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; color: rgb(53, 53, 53); font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial;" class="">To make self-preservation and self-protection the first law of existence<br class="">Is about as scientific as making suicide the first law of existence,<br class="">And amounts to very much the same thing.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; color: rgb(53, 53, 53); font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial;" class="">A nightingale singing at the top of his voice<br class="">Is neither hiding himself nor preserving himself nor propagating his species;<br class="">He is giving himself away in every sense of the word;<br class="">And obviously, it is the culminating point of his existence.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; color: rgb(53, 53, 53); font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial;" class="">A tiger is striped and golden for his own glory.<br class="">He would certainly be much more invisible if he were grey-green.<br class="">And I don’t suppose the ichthyosaurus sparkled like the humming-bird,<br class="">No doubt he was khaki-colored with muddy protective coloration,<br class="">So why didn’t he survive?</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; color: rgb(53, 53, 53); font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial;" class="">As a matter of fact, the only creatures that seem to survive<br class="">Are those that give themselves away in flash and sparkle<br class="">And gay flicker of joyful life;<br class="">Those that go glittering abroad<br class="">With a bit of splendor.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; color: rgb(53, 53, 53); font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial;" class="">Even mice play quite beautifully at shadows,<br class="">And some of them are brilliantly piebald.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; color: rgb(53, 53, 53); font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial;" class="">I expect the dodo looked like a clod,<br class="">A drab and dingy bird.</p><div style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; color: rgb(53, 53, 53); font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial;" class=""> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>- D.H. Lawrence<br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div></div></div></body></html>