182 EVOLUTION AND MAN S PLACE IN NATURE 



type, which science rejects. The little dose must 

 be left to organic chemistry, in a region rather remote 

 from psychology. Evolutionists facing the problem 

 of intelligence in Nature will recognise here the 

 danger to a doctrine of continuity, already pointed 

 out, and will assign due value to the statement of 

 Darwin that the fewness and the comparative 

 simplicity of the instincts in the higher animals are 

 remarkable in contrast with those of the lower 

 animals. In view of the facts, we shall not feel 

 warranted to suppose that the higher mammals have 

 had a less dose of judgment or reason. It must be 

 recognised that instinct is highly characteristic of 

 lower forms of life. Hence, its supposed relationship 

 to intelligence must be held untenable, and we must 

 abandon the attempt to reach an accurate notion of 

 the frame of mind under which an instinctive action 

 is performed. 



Closer examination of the phenomena must guide 

 towards a clearer induction. Darwin has well said 

 that, an action, which we ourselves require experience 

 to enable us to perform, when performed by an animal, 

 more especially by a very young one, without experi 

 ence, and when performed by many individuals in the 

 same way, without their knowing for what purpose it 

 is performed, is usually said to be instinctive. This 

 admirably expresses the general aspects of the ob 

 servations leading to our common references to 

 instinct. Difficulty in tracing the several particulars 

 is admitted in each case; for we are agreed that 

 actions, named instinctive, often shoAv facility in 

 achieving results which we could not reach; or, if 

 the actions are possible to us, they can be done only 



