180 EVOLUTION AND MAN S PLACE IN NATURE 



the British forests; or in the grain-storing of the 

 agricultural ant of Texas. Illustrations are numerous 

 and endlessly varied. The most outstanding feature 

 of all that is named instinct is a marked superiority 

 in procedure to intelligence itself, as well as to common 

 sensori-motor activity. Under instinct we include 

 a multitude of actions to which this rule clearly 

 applies. Animal conduct, unattainable by us, even 

 by use of our intelligence, cannot be referred to intel 

 ligent power. How natural the remark of Agassiz : 

 No one will deny that the honey-comb is constructed 

 with more art and care than the huts of many tribes 

 of men. l Yet we include under instinct many 

 actions much more remarkable than the building of 

 comb. Within its own sphere, superiority must be 

 granted to intelligence, yet potentiality of instinct 

 is one of the secrets of lower organism. So much did 

 Darwin recognise perplexity in this feature of lower 

 organic life, that he opens his chapter on Instinct 

 with these words : Many instincts are so wonderful 

 that their development will probably appear to the 

 reader a difficulty sufficient to overthrow my whole 

 theory. 2 Such a result is not to be apprehended. 

 The general lines of evidence for evolution, appearing 

 up the whole scale of organism, are such that the 

 foundations of the theory are exposed to no serious 

 peril here ; but on this very account the perplexities 

 of Instinct are the greater. The possibilities of 

 organism still quite baffle scientific inquiry, and 

 instinct is one of the most startling illustrations 

 of these possibilities, deserving to be placed alongside 



1 Outlines of Comparative Physiology, 193. 



2 Origin of Species, chap. viii. p. 191. 



