66 Heredity and Instinct 



self certain of the actions which the animal sees, to make 

 the sounds which he hears, etc. Now this involves con- 

 nections of the centres of sight, hearing, etc., with certain 

 muscular coordinations. If he have not the coordinations, 

 he cannot imitate ; just as we saw above is the case with 

 intelligence, if the creature have not the function ready, 

 he cannot perform it intelligently. Imitation differs from 

 intelligence in being a general form of coordinated adapta- 

 tion, while intelligence involves a series of special forms. 1 

 But both make use of the apparatus of coordinated move- 

 ment. So we find, as an actual fact generally agreed upon, 

 that by imitation the little animal picks up directly the 

 example, instruction, mode of life, etc., of his private 

 family circle and of his species. 2 This, then, enables him to 

 use effectively, for the purposes of his life, the coordina- 

 tions which become instincts later on in the life of the 

 species ; and again we have here two points which directly 

 tend to neutralize the arguments of Romanes from ' selec- 

 tive value' and 'co-adaptation.' The co-adaptations may 

 be held to be gradually acquired, since the coordinations 

 of a partial kind are utilized by the imitative functions 

 before they become instinctive. And the law of ' selective 

 value ' does not get application, since the imitative func- 

 tions, by using these muscular coordinations, supplement 

 them, secure accommodations, keep the creature alive, prevent 

 the ' incidence of natural selection, and so give the species 

 all the time necessary to get the variations required for the 

 full instinctive performance of the function. 



1 That they are really the same in type and origin is argued in detail in 

 the work Mental Development. 



2 Largely along the line of his native impulses, as recent researches have 

 shown (1902). 



