THE ORIGIN OF THE HUMAN SOUL 257 



as intelligent is that in such enormously complex sequences 

 of action as, for instance, the emperor moth carries out in the 

 preparing of an escape-opening for itself on its completing 

 the larval and passing into the imago state, the intelligence 

 needed would be so great that it could not be limited to this 

 single activity, and yet it is so limited." * 



Intelligence is essentially a generalizing and abstracting 

 power; hence, from its very nature, it could not be limited to a 

 single activity. Bestial instincts, however, though frequently 

 so amazingly complex and ingeniously purposive as to seem the 

 fruit of profound meditation, are, nevertheless, confined ex- 

 clusively to this or that determinate ability. They operate 

 within narrow and preestablished grooves, from which they 

 never swerve to any appreciable degree, being but little modi- 

 fiable or perfectible by experience. Bees always construct 

 hexagonal cells, spiders stick to the logarithmic spiral, and 

 beavers never attempt to put their engineering skill to new 

 uses. Instincts have but little pliancy, their regularity and 

 uniformity being such as to make the instinctive abilities 

 definitely predictable in the case of any given species of 

 animal. Now, the distinctive mark of intelligence is versa- 

 tility, that is, aptitude for many things without determinate 

 restriction to this or that. A man who is expert in one art 

 may, by reason of his intelligence, be equally proficient in a 

 dozen others. The biologist may be a competent chemist, 

 and the astronomer an excellent physicist. Michel Angelo 

 was a sculptor, a frescoer, a painter, an anatomist, an engi- 

 neer, and an architect, while Leonardo da Vinci had even 

 more arts to his credit. To predict before birth the precise 

 form that a man's ability will take is an impossibility. Cer- 

 tain aptitudes, such as a musical gift, are no doubt inherited, 

 but it is an inheritance which imposes no rigid necessity upon 

 inheriter; since he is free to neglect this native talent, and to 

 develop others for which he has no special innate aptitude. 

 With man, the fashion in clothing and the styles of archi- 



*Cf. Nelson's Encyclopedia, v. 6, p. 452. 



