Introductory. 23 



ent course of lectures, we take that which has been 

 considered peculiarly the characteristic of the ani- 

 mal ; but our work will all be in the service of man. 

 We shall inquire into the nature of instinct, that 

 we may trace with more clearness the operation 

 of instinctive principles in our own constitution, and 

 be able to give them their due consideration in all 

 our schemes of education and social reform. 



We meet a formidable difficulty at the very out- 

 set in the common forms of speech and in the sci- 

 entific definitions of Instinct and Reason. A wri- 

 ter should use language in its common meaning if 

 he can, and if he needs new words or new shades 

 of meaning for old ones, he ought to explain his in- 

 novations fully and be consistent in the use of his 

 new terms. But the best intentions and greatest 

 care will seldom secure a writer from real inconsist- 

 ency in the use of terms or from such a use of them 

 that his meaning may not in some cases be misun- 

 derstood, even by careful readers. When words 

 and phrases have had a fix-ed meaning with us, it is 

 difficult to constantly give a different meaning to 

 them. There is much error in the world that passes 

 current, because it comes to us in well-worn formu- 

 las of speech, as counterfeit money passes among 

 common people more readily when it has become 

 soiled by the fingers of the hundreds it has deceived, 

 than when it comes fresh from the printing-press. 

 The very dirt and rents are marks of many judg- 

 ments in its favor, and none but an expert would 

 pronounce against the many endorsements of gen- 

 uineness which it bears. It is to our mental gear 



