THE ORIGIN OF THE HUMAN SOUL 249 



is, of the supersensible link, which connects a means with an 

 end. ''Instinct," to cite the words of Wm. James, "is usually 

 defined as the faculty of acting in such a way as to produce 

 certain ends, without foresight of the ends, and without previ- 

 ous education in the performance." ('"Principles of Psy- 

 chology," vol. II, c. xxiv, p. 383.) Hence the unconscious 

 and objective purposiveness, which the human mind discerns 

 in the instinctive behavior of brutes, is manifestative, not of 

 an intelligence within the animal itself, but only of the infinite 

 intelligence of the First Cause or Creator, Who imposed these 

 laws replete with wisdom upon the animal kingdom, and of 

 the finite intelligence of man, who is capable of recognizing 

 the Divine purpose expressed, not only in the instincts of 

 animals, but in all the telic phenomena of nature. Such 

 marvels are not the fortuitous result of uncoordinated con- 

 tingencies. Behind these correlated teleologies of the visible 

 universe there is a Supreme Intelligence, which has "ordered 

 all things in measure, and number, and weight." (Wisdom: 

 XI, 21.) "And this universal geometry," says Fabre, in allu- 

 sion to the mathematics of the Epeira's web, "tells of an 

 Universal Geometrician, whose divine compass has measured 

 all things. I prefer that, as an explanation of the logarithmic 

 curve of the Ammonite and the Epeira, to the Worm screwing 

 up the tip of its tail. It may not perhaps be in accordance 

 with latter-day teaching, but it takes a loftier flight." ("Life 

 of the Spider," p.^ 400.) 



But, though the teleology of instinct is wonderful in the 

 extreme, the element of psychic regulation is so subordinate 

 and restricted, that, far from postulating intelligent control, 

 certain scientists go so far as to deny even sentient control, 

 in the case of instinctive behavior. Animals, in their opinion, 

 are nothing more than "reflex machines," a view which coin- 

 cides with that of Descartes, who regarded animals as uncon- 

 scious automatons. "The instincts," says Pawlow, "are also 

 reflexes but more complex." (Science, Nov. 9, 1923, p. 359.) 

 The late Jacques Loeb was a protagonist of the view that 



