VITAL RESERVES 319 



In times of stress a man will outlast a horse, and 

 an educated man may outwork an uncultured man of 

 much more powerful physique because the cortical 

 reserves are available to drive jaded muscles on to 

 intense effort long after fatigue has exhausted the 

 normal capacities of the subcortical apparatus. A 

 part of this superiority lies in the intelligent conserva- 

 tion of effort in the earlier stages of a long program of 

 severe labor and other expressions of the reserves of 

 associational patterns to which reference was made 

 above. But a part of this superior efficiency apparent- 

 ly results from direct activation by the cortex, which 

 acts like a spur to an exhausted horse. 



There is abundant evidence (for the most part in- 

 direct) that the primary innate or "natural" modes 

 of behavior are physiologically less exhausting than 

 are activities involving recombination in unaccus- 

 tomed patterns and redintegration of these more 

 primitive modes of behavior. As I have elsewhere 

 written (1924, p. 272): 



Reflex and instinctive action are biologically inexpensive. 

 Their patterns are fixed and the apparatus is, as it were, manu- 

 factured wholesale and distributed by heredity to all members 

 of the species. Individual conscious adjustment is much more 

 costly; in fact, it is the most precious thing on our planet. 



The price which must be paid for this sort of 

 creative living fortunately does not have to be drawn 

 from today's income; there is a large balance in re- 

 serve subject to sight draft. The income of energy 



