THE ELEMENTS OF MIND 217 



particular nervous apparatus by means of which 

 reasoning is carried on, or with the power or 

 disposition to develop this apparatus, or he will 

 never reason. The genius of the partridge in 

 cajoling the passer-by from her nest is called 

 instinct, but it is not more inherited than was 

 the genius of Shakspere. Experience simply calls 

 into being that, whatever it is in each particular 

 being, which is inherited. Sir Isaac Newton took 

 to philosophy and Ole Bull to music not less 

 inevitably than the duck takes to water or the 

 hound to hunting. Reason is, hence, inherited 

 by every man, who has it as truly as his erect 

 posture and plantigrade feet. There is something 

 in the past of all of us and of everything which 

 has determined, and which may be used to account 

 for, everything that to-day exists or happens, even 

 to the style and behaviour of every leaf that 

 flutters in the forest, and to the eccentricities 

 of our opinions and handwritings. 



Reason, in the sense in which it is here used, is 

 found feebly in the oyster. Oysters taken from 

 a depth never uncovered by the sea open their 

 shells, lose their water, and quickly perish. But 

 oysters taken from the same depths, if kept where 

 they are occasionally left uncovered for short 

 intervals, learn to keep their shells closed and to 

 live a much longer period out of the water. On 

 the coast of France ' oyster schools ' exist, where 

 oysters intended for inland cities are educated to 

 keep their shells closed when out of the water in 

 order to enable them to survive the desiccating 



