192 MENTAL EVOLUTION IN ANIMALS. 



and that the egg hatches very shortly. The insect then visits 

 its living offspring every day, bringing it small larvae stung 

 to keep them quiet. Now this instinct may have been 

 altered in Odynerus by a delay arising in the time of hatch- 

 ing, and a series of victims having been therefore placed in 

 the provision-chamber in obedience to the primitive instinct, 

 which has thus become modified into a new one. 



Numerous other instincts will be found mentioned in the 

 Appendix, the origin of which can only be attributed to the 

 uncompounded influence of natural selection. I feel, there- 

 fore, that it is needless for me to adduce further illustrations, 

 and so shall here conclude my observations on instincts of 

 the primary class. 



Secondary Instincts. 



Coming now to the second series of propositions, we shall 

 find that their proof casts a good deal of reflected light upon 

 those which we have just considered — light which tends still 

 further to demonstrate the latter. 



First, then, we have to show that " intelligent adjustments, 

 vjhen frequently performed by the individual, become automatic, 

 either to the extent of not requiring conscious thought at all, or, 

 as consciously adjustive habits, not requiring the same degree of 

 conscious effort as at first. 



The latter part of this proposition has already been 

 proved in an earlier chapter of this book. That " practice 

 makes perfect" is a matter, as I have previously said, of 

 daily observation. Whether we regard a juggler, a pianist, 

 or a billiard player, a child learning his lesson, or an actor his 

 part by frequently repeating it, or any one of a thousand other 

 illustrations of the same process, we see at once that there is 

 truth in the cynical definition of a man as " a bundle of 

 habits." And the same, of course, is true of animals. 

 " Training " an animal is essentially the same process as 

 educating a child, and, as we shall presently have occasion to 

 show, animals in a state of nature develop special habits in 

 relation to local needs. 



The extent to which habit or repetition may thus serve 

 to supersede conscious effort is a favourite theme among 

 psychologists ; and one or two instances have already been 

 given in the chapter on the Physical Basis of Mind. To 

 this point, therefore, I need not recur. 



