CHAP. XI.] 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE CAl. 



369 



wiilcli they can have no cognition whatever. This is shown by 

 both parent and offspring at birth. The young spontaneously seek, 

 find, and suck from, the mother's teats, while the young mother, 

 also yielding to the spontaneous promptings of her organization, 

 unhesitatingly gnaws thorough the umbilical cord of her first 

 kitten. 



So also a kitten brought up without any experience of mice, will 

 pursue with eagerness, catch and kill the very first mouse which 

 comes in its way. These instinctive acts are acts which spring 

 necessarily from the structure of any organism, much as the 

 actions of a steam-engine must follow their designed course 

 when heat and water are duly supplied. Not, of course, that 

 they are altogether such: for the steam-engine is a mere machine, 

 while the animal is a living organism, endowed with much plasticity 

 of body, and (as we have seen) even with a power of drawing 

 practical inferences. Its instinct is, therefore, necessarily somewhat, 

 as it were, jjlastic also, and capable, within limits, of accommodating 

 itself to changed circumstances. 



Instinct, then, is a power of a kind distinct, on the one hand, from 

 even such intelligence as cats * have, and distinct from mere reflex 

 action on the other. f Attempts have been made to deny its existence 

 and distinctness,+ but they have only served to make them the more 

 manifest. 



selves shocked at what they call the 

 " unnecessary cruelty" of the cat. It is 

 worth while therefore to inquire if there 

 is not a reason that can be given for it 

 in the economy of nature. For to do this 

 is better than to view the circumstance 

 as one of the proofs of imperfection in 

 that economy. When we consider that 

 the prey of the feline race is usually 

 nimble, and that it can only be caught 

 by a pounce upon it, we shall see that 

 success in catching mice, birds, &c., 

 must depend on constant practice. The 

 creature escapes and is recaught again 

 and again, and always by a pounce. To 

 make real escape impossible, the victim 

 is nipped or disabled, but generally so 

 slightly that it may at fu'st be taken 

 from the cat very little injured. It is 

 clear that each capture is thus made a 

 lesson in catching. For everything 

 depends on the sudden and noiseless 

 dash." 



* Mr. Douglas A. Spalding found 

 kittens to be imbued with an instinctive 

 horror of the dog before they were able 

 to see it. He tells lis : — " One day last 

 month, after fondling my dog, I put my 

 hand into a basket containing four blind 

 kittens, three days old. The smell my 

 hand had carried with it set them puff- 

 ing and spitting in the most comical 

 fashion." (Nature, October 7, 1875, 

 p. 507.) 



+ "Instinct, as instinct, is of course 

 an abstraction existing in the mind, 

 though it exists concretely enough in 

 animal actions of a special kind. In- 

 stinct is, concretely, the animal organism 

 energizing in certain ways." "It is a 

 faculty of the feeling, imagining, organi- 

 cally-remembering and automatically- 

 acting soul, which faculty is in most 

 intimate connection with the organiza- 

 tion of each species, so that upon the 

 recurrence of certain sensations, external 

 or internal, a definite series of actions is 

 initiated, for the performance of which 

 the organization has been specially de- 

 veloped. It is action like reflex action, 

 save that it takes place in consequence 

 of feelings and imaginations. It is so 

 intimately related to an animal's struc- 

 ture, that if it were possible for us to 

 construct any given kind of animal, we 

 should necessarily give rise to the in- 

 stinct in giving rise to the structure." 

 (Lessons from Nature, pp. 236 and 

 239.) 



X Mr. Herbert Spencer and the late 

 Mr. Lewes agree in entertaining very 

 singular views as to instinct. According 

 to Mr. Spencer, it is a higher develop- 

 ment of reason, which it has replaced 

 owing to the establishment of a more 

 jjcrfect adjustment of inner relations to 

 outer relations than exists where mere 

 reason is concerned, 



B B 



Mr. Lewes regards 



