RKFT.KXKS, IXSTINCT, \Nh Hl..\.^ijS 447 



the whole. Then lie stulTt^l the sliell itself iiuu ius inoiuh. 

 This act was not instinctive, h was tlie work of pure rea.>i(»n. 

 Evidently his race was not familiar with the ase of e^^s and liad 

 acquired no instincts re^ardin^^ tlieni. He would do it Ix'ticr 

 next time. Reason is an inellicient agent at first, a weak t<K)l; 

 but when it is trained it becomes an agent more valual>le antl 

 more powerful than any instinct. 



The monkey Jocko tried to eat the e^^ ofTered liim in much 

 the same way that l^ob (\'u\, but not liking the taste lie threw 

 it away. 



The confusion of higldy perfected insiinci wiiii inieiieci i.s 

 very common in popular discussions. Instinct grows weak 

 and less accurate in its automatic obedienee as the intellect 

 becomes available in its place. Intellect and instinct as well ls 

 all other nervous processes are outgrowths from the simple 

 reflex response to external conditions. Hut instinct insures a 

 single deiinite response to the corresi)Mnding stimulus. The 

 intellect has a choice of responses. In its lower stages it is 

 vacillating and ineffective; but as its development goes on it 

 becomes alert and adecjuate to the varied conditions of life. 

 It grows with the need foi* iui))r<tvement. It will tlierefore 

 become impossible for tlie c()m[)lexity of life to outgrow the 

 adequacy of man to adapt himself to its conditions. 



Many animals currently ))elieved to be of high intelligence 

 are not so. The fur seal, for example, finds its way back from 

 the long swim of two or three tliouiand miles tlirough a foggy 

 and stormy sea, and is never too late or too early in arrival. 

 The female fur seal goes two hundred miles to her fetniing 

 gi'ounds in summer, leaving the ])up on the shore. After a 

 week or two she returns to fin<l him witiiin a few rods of the rocks 

 where she had left him. Hotli mother and young know each 

 other by call and by odor, and neither is ever mistaken though 

 ten thousand other ])ups and other mothers occupy the .>i:ime 

 rookery. But this is m)t intellig<'nce. It is simply instinct, 

 because it has no elem(»nt of choice in it. ^^'hatever its an- 

 cestors were forcecl to do tiie fur seal does to |K'rfection. Its 

 instincts are jierfect as clockwork, and the necessities of migra- 

 tion must keej) them so. Hut if brought into new ccmditions 

 it is dazed and stupid. It cannot choo.se when different lines 

 of action are presented. 



The Bering Sea Commission of iMKi made an ex|x-riment 



