Habit and Instinct. 431 



of the blind impulse, is accompanied by a feeling of relief 

 and ease. Thus where a motive emerges at all into con- 

 sciousness, that from which we may presume that instinctive 

 activities are performed is not any foreknowledge of their 

 end and purpose, but the gratification of an immediate 

 and pressing need, the satisfaction of a felt want. 



We have, so far, been concerned merely with the 

 various kinds of activity presented by men and animals, 

 and with some of their characteristics. The organism, in 

 virtue of its organization, has an inherited groundwork of 

 innate capacity. Surrounding circumstances and commerce 

 with the world draw out and develop the activities which / 

 the innate capacity renders possible. First, there are 

 automatic and reflex actions, which are comparatively 

 isolated activities in response to definite stimuli, external 

 or internal. Secondly, there are those organized trains or 

 sequences of co-ordinated activities which are performed 

 by the individual in common with all the members of the 

 same more or less restricted group, in adaptation to certain 

 circumstances, oft-recurring or essential to the continuance 

 of the species. These are the instinctive activities. But 

 no hard-and-fast line can be drawn between them and 

 reflex actions. The instinctive activities may be either 

 perfect or relatively imperfect, according to the accuracy 

 of their adaptation to the purpose for which the activity is 

 performed ; but in either case they are carried out without 

 learning or practice. In some cases, however, they cannot 

 be performed until the organization is more perfectly 

 developed than it is at birth ; but when the proper time 

 arrives they are perfect, and require no practice; these 

 may be termed " deferred instincts." Where some practice, 

 but only a little, is required, the instinctive activities may 

 be regarded as incomplete; and these pass into those 

 activities which require at first a good deal of practice, 

 learning, and attention, but eventually run off smoothly 

 and without special attention, at times almost or quite 

 unconsciously. These are habitual activities. Finally, 



