INSTINCT AND ACQUISITION. 313 



ing circuit in the air, after the inanner of its kind, and aliglited, or 

 attempted to aliglit, on a branchless stump of a beech ; at last it was 

 no more seen. No. 3 (which was seen on the wing for about lialf 

 a minute) flew near the ground, first round the Wellingtonia, over to 

 the otlier side of the kitchen-garden, past the bee-house, back to the 

 lawn, round again, and into a beech-tree. No. 4 flew well near the 

 ground, over a hedge twelve feet high to the kitchen-garden through 

 an opening into the beeches, and was last seen close to the ground. 

 The swallows never flew against any thing, nor Avas there, in their 

 avoiding objects, any appreciable difference between them and the 

 old birds. No. 3 swept round the Wellingtonia, and No. 4 rose over 

 the hedge just as we see the old swallows doing every hour of the day. 

 I have this summer verified these observations. Of two swallows I 

 had similarly confined, one, on being set free, flew a yard or two too 

 close to the ground, and rose in the direction of a beech-tree, which it 

 gracefully avoided ; it was seen for a considerable time sweeping- 

 round the beeches and performing magnificent evolutions in the air 

 high above them. The other, which was observed to beat the air 

 with its wings more than usual, was soon lost to sight behind some 

 trees. Titmice, tomtits, and wrens, I have made the subjects of a sim- 

 ilar experiment and with similar results. 



Again, eveiy boy who has brought up nestlings with the hand must 

 have observed that, while for a time they but hold up their heads and 

 open their mouths to be fed, they by-and-by begin quite spontane- 

 ously to snap at the food. Here the development may be observed 

 as it proceeds. In the case of the swallow I am inclined to think that 

 they catch insects in the air perfectly well immediately on leaving the 

 nest. 



With regard, now, to man, is there any reason to suppose tliat, un- 

 like all otlier creatures, his mental constitution has to be in the ease 

 of each individual built up from the foundation out of the primitive 

 elements of consciousness ? Reason seems to me to be all the other 

 way. The infant is helpless at birth for the same reason that the 

 kitten or swallow is helpless because of its physical immaturity; 

 and I know of nothing to justify the contrary opinion, as held by 

 some of our distinguished psychologists. Why believe that the spar- 

 row can pick up crumbs by instinct, but that man must learn to inter- 

 pret his visual sensations and to chew his food ? Dr. Carpenter, in his 

 " Mental Physiology," has attempted to answer this argument in the 

 only way in which it could be answered. He has produced facts 

 which appear to him to prove that "the acquirement of the power of 

 visually guiding the muscular movements is experimental in the case 

 of the human infant." More than forty years ago Dr. Carpenter took 

 part in an operation performed on a boy three years old for congenital 

 cataract. The operation was successful. In a few days both pupils 

 were almost clear; but, though the boy "clearly recognized the direc- 



