The emblem of intelligence is the feeler of the snail, the creature “with the fumbling face,” with which, if we can believe Mephistopheles,23 it also smells. Meeting an obstacle, the feeler is immediately withdrawn into the protection of the body, it becomes one with the whole until it timidly ventures forth again as an autonomous agent. If the danger is still present, it disappears once more, and the intervals between the attempts grow longer.
