1 80 Orthoplasy 



(6) In this connection, as we have pointed out above, we 

 find that with the rise of intelligence, broadly understood, 

 there comes into existence an animal tradition into which 

 the young are educated in each succeeding generation. 

 This sets the direction of most useful attainment, and 

 constitutes a new and higher environment. It is with 

 reference to this, in many cases at least, that instincts 

 both rise and decay ; decay, when plasticity and continued 

 relearning by each generation are demanded ; rise, when 

 fixed organic reactions, stereotyped by variation and selec- 

 tion, are of more use. So there is a constant adjustment, 

 as the conditions of life may demand, between the intelli- 

 gent actions embodied in tradition, and the instinctive 

 actions embodied through natural selection in inherited 

 structure ; and this is the essential cooperation of the two 

 factors, accommodation and variation, as postulated by the 

 theory of orthoplasy. The line of acquired modification 

 takes the lead, variations follow. This is very differ- 

 ent from the view which relies exclusively upon the 

 natural selection of useful variations in this or that char- 

 acter ; for it introduces a conserving and regulating factor, 

 a ' blanket utility ' as it is called on an earlier page, 

 under which various minor adaptations may be adjusted in 

 the organism as a whole. Of course the selection of the 

 plasticity, required by intelligence and educability, is by 

 direct natural selection; but, inside of this, the relation of 

 the intelligence to the specific organic characters and 

 functions is the one of ' concurrence ' which the theory 

 of orthoplasy postulates. 



(7) It is a factor of stability and persistence of type, as 

 opposed, for example, to the fatal result of disadvanta- 

 geous variations (Wallace); since the individual accom- 



