212 MODERN IDEAS OF EVOLUTION 



divergence from them. In regard to reflex actions, 

 or those which are merely automatic, inasmuch as 

 they are intended to provide for certain important 

 functions without thought or volition, their develop 

 ment is naturally in the inverse ratio of psychical ele 

 vation, and man is consequently in this respect in no 

 way superior to lower animals. 



The same may be said with reference to instinc 

 tive powers, which provide often for complex actions 

 in a spontaneous and unreasoning manner. In these 

 also man is rather deficient than otherwise ; and 

 since from their nature they limit their possessors to 

 narrow ranges of activity, and fix them within a 

 definite scope of experience and efficiency, they would 

 be incompatible with those higher and more versatile 

 inventive powers which man possesses. The comb- 

 building instinct of the bee, the nest-weaving instinct 

 of the bird, are fixed and invariable things, obviously 

 incompatible with the varied contrivance of man ; and 

 while instinct is perfect within its narrow range, it 

 cannot rise beyond this into the sphere of unlimited 

 thought and contrivance. Higher than mere instinct 

 are the powers of imagination, memory, and associa 

 tion, and here man at once steps beyond his animal 

 associates, and develops these in such a variety of 

 ways that even the rudest tribes of men, who often 

 appear to trust more to these endowments than to 

 higher powers, rise into a plane immeasurably above 

 that of the highest and most intelligent brutes, and 



