The Modern Theory of Instinct 



stowed so lavishly upon the insects ! The 

 answer is that apparently, in this world, cellu- 

 lar evolution is not everything. 



For these among many other reasons, I re- 

 ject the modern theory of instinct. I see in 

 it no more than an ingenious game in which 

 the arm-chair naturalist, the man who shapes 

 the world according to his whim, is able to 

 take delight, but in which the observer, the 

 man grappling with reality, fails to find a 

 serious explanation of anything whatsoever 

 that he sees. In my own surroundings, I no- 

 tice that those who are most positive in the 

 matter of these difficult questions are those 

 who have seen the least. If they have seen 

 nothing at all, they go to the length of rash- 

 ness. The others, the timid ones, know 

 more or less what they are talking about. 

 And is it not the same outside my modest 

 environment ? 



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