128 THE WHENCE AND THE WHITHER OF MAN 



material. Furthermore the young spider builds prac- 

 tically as good a web as the old one. She has inherited 

 the power, not developed or gained it by experience or 

 observation. And all the members of the species have 

 inherited it in much the same degree of perfection. 



Concerning the origin of instincts there are several 

 theories. Some instincts would seem to be the result 

 of non-intelligent, perhaps unconscious, habits becom- 

 ing fixed by heredity and improved by natural selec- 

 tion ; others would appear to be modifications of 

 actions originally due to intelligence. Instinct is 

 therefore characterized by consciousness of the stim- 

 ulus to act, of the means and end, without the 

 knowledge of the exact adaptation of means to end. It 

 is hereditary and characterizes species or large groups. 



3. Intelligent Action. You come in cold and sit 

 down before an open fire. You push the brands to- 

 gether to make the fire burn. Applying once more the 

 criterion of consciousness to this action we notice that 

 you are conscious of the stimulus to act, of the steps 

 of the action, and of the end to be attained, exactly as 

 in instinctive action. But finally, and this is the es- 

 sential characteristic of intelligent action, you are 

 aware to a certain extent of the fitness of the means 

 to the attainment of the end. This piece of knowl- 

 edge you had to acquire for yourself. Erasmus Darwin 

 defined a fool as a man who had never tried an ex- 

 periment. Experience and observation, not heredity, 

 are the sources of intelligence. Intelligence is power 

 to think, and a man may be very learned for do we 

 not have learned pigs ? and yet have very little real 

 intelligence. Hence this is possessed by different in- 

 dividuals in very varying degrees. 



