30 ■ Instijict, 



as 2. fact, as revealed by these phenomena, that we 

 must investigate. 



It is our work then to inquire what animals do 

 as sentient beings, as voluntary beings, as manifest- 

 ing sensation, choice, volition, contrivance and mem- 

 ory, — to inquire how far an animal ever improves 

 by experience, — in a word, to inquire what are the 

 kinds of acts that animals perform and what are 

 the conditions under which they perform them. 

 Then we are to inquire what kinds of acts man per- 

 forms and the conditions under which he performs 

 them. When these two series of observations are 

 placed side by side and a comparison is made be- 

 tween them, we shall have the best conditions pos- 

 sible for deciding what are the characteristics com- 

 mon to both man and the lower animals, and the 

 means of detecting any power or faculty which 

 either possesses as his peculiar distinction. From 

 such an examination much might be hoped for, in 

 rendering the lower animals more subservient to 

 us and in securing to them proper usage ; but its 

 special use will be to give us a fuller knowledge of 

 our own capacities and powers than could ever be 

 learned from consciousness, or any study of man 

 alone. 



No attempt will be made to gather the wonders 

 of Instinct, many of the accounts of which were in- 

 vented or embellished for. entertaining story-books ; 

 but the best known examples of instinctive action 

 will be taken, such as can in most cases be easily 

 observed in any part of the world, simply to show 

 what Instinct is in its varied manifestations, — as a 



