n.i INTELLIGENCE AND INSTINCT 149 



what numerator and what denominator are to come; he 

 therefore has present to his mind the general relation be- 

 tween the two terms although he does not know either of 

 them; he knows the form without the matter. So is it, 

 prior to experience, with the categories into which our 

 experience comes to be inserted. Let us adopt then words 

 sanctioned by usage, and give the distinction between 

 intelligence and instinct this more precise formula: In- 

 telligence, in so far as it is innate, is the knowledge of a form; 

 instinct implies the knowledge of a matter. 



From this second point of view, which is that of know- 

 ledge instead of action, the force immanent in life in general 

 appears to us again as a limited principle, in which origin- 

 ally two different and even divergent modes of knowing 

 coexisted and intermingled. The first gets at definite 

 objects immediately, in their materiality itself. It says, 

 "This is what is." The second gets at no object in particu- 

 lar; it is only a natural power of relating an object to an 

 object, or a part to a part, or an aspect to an aspect — in 

 short, of drawing conclusions when in possession of the 

 premisses, of proceeding from what has been learnt to 

 what is still unknown. It does not say, "This is;" it 

 says only that "if the conditions are such, such will be the 

 conditioned." In short, the first kind of knowledge, the 

 instinctive, would be formulated in what philosophers 

 call categorical propositions, while the second kind, the 

 intellectual, would always be expressed hypothetically. 

 Of these two faculties, the former seems, at first, much 

 preferable to the other. And it would be so, in truth, if it 

 extended to an endless number of objects. But, in fact, 

 it applies only to one special object, and indeed only to a 

 restricted part of that object. Of this, at least, its know- 

 ledge is intimate and full; not explicit, but implied in the 

 accomplished action. The intellectual faculty, on the 



