INSTINCTIVE, EMOTIONAL AND REFLEX ACTION 329 



the builders of this chick had taken part in the actions 

 and were a part of the parents from which he came. Not 

 only did this germ cell remember how to build the struc- 

 ture from which it came, but also how to maintain and 

 operate it. The actions of the chick are called instinctive, 

 but they are in fact no different from any other intelligent 

 acts. The building, maintaining and directing of this 

 structure we call a chick has been performed by this 

 particular kind of cell 'for ages. His knowledge and ex- 

 perience is limited to this kind of structure. 



The bee constructs a cell, the birds build a nest, the 

 worm changes to a butterfly. These are all acts that the 

 bird, bee or caterpillar have not had the slightest expe- 

 rience in or information of from the outside world. 



In the case of the caterpillar and the butterfly, there is 

 no chance to say that the caterpillar builds anything, be- 

 cause he is destroyed, gradually torn down, and rebuilt 

 into a butterfly, a new and different structure. The cells 

 or occupants of this caterpillar are all there, and so is the 

 building material, and they change it into a flying ma- 

 chine. 



The worm or caterpillar is in the hands of a power that 

 can change him into a new and different individual. 

 Think of the extent and magnitude of the operations per- 

 formed in this task of tearing down the worm and re- 

 building him into a butterfly. It must be admitted that 

 it can not be done without a perfect system and plan, 

 skillfully pursued and executed. 



The cause of instinctive actions has seemed so myster- 

 ious to people in general, that preachers have used it in 

 their sermons to prove the existence of a God, claiming 

 that God is the instigator of all instinctive actions. I 

 read the following Sunday Sermon from a Daily Paper : 

 "It is not intelligence in the animal, nor of it. Back of 



