326 Organic Nature s Riddle 



response to a stimulus, which response is more or less pur- 

 posive as regards the time of its occurrence, but has no 

 reference to future events to occur long after the faintest 

 waves of the stimulating action have died out. The very 

 essence of ' instinct,' however, is to provide for a more or 

 less distant future, often, as we have seen, the future of 

 another generation. It is essentially idic, and directed to 

 a future unforeseen, but generally useful, end. This ex- 

 planation, then, is fundamentally and necessarily inadequate. 

 It is like an explanation of the building of a house, by 

 ' bricks, mortar, bricklayers, and hodmen,' with the omission 

 of all reference to any influence governing their motions and 

 directing them towards a common and predetermined end 

 which is not theirs. But though we cannot explain ' in- 

 stinct ' by ' reflex action,' there is none the less a certain 

 obvious afiinity between these two forms of animal activity, 

 and it is in part my object to point out the nature of this 

 very affinity. 



Next we may pass in review the two hypotheses that 

 instinct is but (1) a form of intelligence, or (2) individual 

 experience. As to the first, I have already given instances 

 of unquestionably instinctive actions performed by birds 

 as soon as they quit the eggshell, and it would be but 

 waste of time to argue against the view that the human 

 infant is guided by intelligent purpose and conscious fore- 

 sight in his very first acts of sucking, swallowing, and 

 defecation. Actual intelligence, therefore, is a radically 

 insufficient explanation, as also, for the very same reasons, 

 is Condillac's hypothesis as to individual experience. About 

 ' lapsed intelligence ' I will speak later on. Lamarck's 

 hypothesis, that instinct is but inherited habit, is one 

 which is much more worthy of careful consideration than 

 any we have yet considered. For it may be admitted at 

 once that habits may be inherited. There are many in- 



