APPLICA TION OF FOREGOING CHAPTERS. 49 



find that even the apparently most automatic actions 

 were yet done in due course, upon a balance of con- 

 siderations, and under the deliberate exercise of the 

 will. 



We should also incline to think that even such an 

 action as the oxygenisation of its blood by an infant of 

 ten minutes' old, can only be done so well and so 

 unconsciously, after repeated failures on the part of the 

 infant itself. 



True, as has been already implied, we do not imme- 

 diately see when the baby could have made the 

 necessary mistakes and acquired that infinite practice 

 without which it could never go through such complex 

 processes satisfactorily ; we have therefore invented 

 the words " hereditary instinct," and consider them as 

 accounting for the phenomenon ; but a very little 

 reflection will show that though these words may be a 

 very good way of stating the difficulty, they do little 

 or nothing towards removing it. 



Why should hereditary instinct enable a creature to 

 dispense with the experience which we see to be neces- 

 sary in all other cases before difficult operations can be 

 performed successfully ? 



What is this talk that is made about the experience 

 of the race, as though the experience of one man could 

 profit another who knows nothing about him ? If a 

 man eats his dinner, it nourishes him and not his neigh- 

 bour ; if he learns a difficult art, it is he that can do it 

 and not his neighbour. Yet, practically, we see that 

 the vicarious experience, which seems so contrary to our 

 common observation, does nevertheless appear to hold 



