VI DARWIN ON INSTINCT 305 



The advantage of the faculty of learning rapidly lies in 

 the abbreA'iation of the process, whereby time is saved. 



In instinct this abbreviation is still more complete, has 

 reached its highest stage — now the organism works intelli- 

 gently and according to reason in the directions concerned with 

 the same certainty and accuracy as the reflex mechanism 

 from which intelligence and reason have been evolved, but 

 which was only sufficient to meet the most common and 

 most general demands of the outer world. 



Darwin gives no special explanation of instinct, he only 

 states his agreement with Peter Huber in the belief that with 

 instinct is mingled a small amount of judgment or intelli- 

 gence, even in animals which stand at a very low level in the 

 scale of nature.i He says it is easy to show that quite dis- 

 tinct mental faculties are usually included under this name. 

 In his posthumous essay on instinct, published by Eomanes 

 in his book on mental evolution in animals, Darwin still only 

 gives examples of the faculty, and as in his previous works 

 his object is exclusively to explain its evolution as a weapon 

 in the struggle for existence by the principle of utility. Thus 

 his posthumous manuscript concludes with the words : ^ "It 

 may not j)erhaps be quite logical, but in any case it is in my 

 view much more satisfactory, that I do not need to regard the 

 young cuckoo who casts its foster-brethren from the nest, 

 tlie slave-making ants, the larvae of the Ichneumonidae which 

 consume the living body of their victims, the cat playing 

 with the mouse, the fish-otter and cormorant with living: fishes, 

 as instances of instincts which have been specially bestowed 

 on each animal by the Creator, but that I can consider them 

 as partial expressions of one general law which leads to the 

 progress of all organic beings — the law : Defend yourselves, 

 vary, let the strong live, the weak die." 



Eomanes describes instinct as reflex action with which is 



^ Origin of Sjjecies, sixth edition, p. 287. ^ Oj). cit. p. 437. 



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