212 THE PSYCHICAL KINSHIP 



and much that is attributed by us to instinct is 

 not instinct at all, but is acquired by the young 

 through education imparted by the elders. Parent 

 birds have often been seen teaching their young 

 ones to fly, and no doubt a good deal of the 

 migratory acumen manifested by birds is nothing 

 but custom and tradition handed down to each 

 younger generation by the old and experienced. 

 A large part of the knowledge of mankind (or 

 what passes for knowledge) consists of habits 

 and hobbies, customs and traditions, impressed 

 upon each new generation by the generation 

 which produced it. Each generation of men 

 seems to feel that whenever it creates a new 

 generation it has got to pile on to this new 

 generation all of the fool notions which have 

 been acquired from the past, amplified by its own 

 inventions. And when we come to know other 

 animals better, there is practically no doubt that 

 we shall find that a large part of what we now 

 call instinct and look upon as congenital will, on 

 closer and more rational examination, be found to 

 be nothing but the pedagogical effects of early 

 environment. Professor Poulton, of Oxford, who 

 has made many experiments on just-born birds, 

 says that young chicks learn to fear the hawk and 

 to interpret the oral warnings of the mother. 

 Cats teach their young to play with their prey 

 in that cruel manner so characteristic of all the 

 Felidae, as I have myself observed more than 

 once. A mother cat will carry a live mouse into 

 the presence of her kittens and lie down and play 



