I/O Instinct. 



other, — especially, where the thing preserved can 

 be preserved only by means of its own characteris- 

 tics — through its own struggle for existence. 



We are now prepared to see in what respect 

 histinct is a law for the animal. 



We have seen from our discussions thus far, that 

 something must be given to every animal as its out- 

 fit in starting in the world. There must be not 

 only impulse, but there must be a certain amount 

 of knowledge and skill possessed by the animal, 

 when it comes into the world, just as necessarily 

 as it must have a stomach and lungs. If any object 

 to the terms, knowledge and skill, because the ca- 

 pabilities are not acquired, they cannot deny the ex- 

 istence in animals of these capabilities, that take 

 the place of acquired knowledge and skill among 

 men. 



I conceive that the knowledge and skill, which 

 the young animal comes into the world with, differ 

 no more from that which he gains in after life, from 

 experience, than his stomach and lungs at the first 

 moment of life differ from the same organs after 

 they have grown by the process of taking food. 

 The young animal comes into the world with organs 

 all fitted for a certain work, and with knowledge 

 and skill to fit him for that work, — that is, to main- 

 tain his place in the world. Nature seems to give 

 him, at birth, as little as possible of both bodily and 

 mental powers ; using the word mental as including 

 all the activities involving volition. But she acts 

 wisely, and gives the animal bodily and mental 

 powers sufficient for the conditions in which it 



