THE INSTINCTS OF MAN 383 



substitute so efficient that individuals (or rather the communities) 

 that possessed them in higher degrees did not survive in greater 

 numbers than those that possessed them in lower degrees. Since 

 ants possess such high powers of making mental acquirements, it 

 is only reasonable to suppose that their instincts, like those of man 

 and like many of the mental and physical parts of the slave-holders, 

 have undergone retrogression. Whence it follows that many of 

 their so-called instincts for example the habit of warring in dis- 

 ciplined hosts, of keeping pets, of preserving aphides for the sake 

 of their sweet secretions, of clearing areas of ground, growing food 

 plants on them, and storing the seed, of nipping the rootlets of 

 seed to prevent germination, and so forth are quite possibly, not 

 instincts but items of traditional knowledge and habits entirely 

 comparable to that traditional knowledge, to those traditional 

 mental attitudes, those ways of thinking and acting, which play so 

 large a part in human lives. 



636. The instincts of man, though comparatively few and 

 simple and though overshadowed by the enormous mass of his 

 acquired mental characters, by his intelligence, are yet essential to 

 his existence. Some of his actions are wholly instinctive, for not 

 only are the inclinations to perform them innate, but also the ability 

 to do so. The act of sucking in a young infant is an example. 

 This action is often termed a reflex. But it is entirely voluntary 

 in the adult. No man ever sucks unless he chooses to suck. If, 

 then, it is reflex in the infant, it must altogether change its char- 

 acter later which no other reflex is known to do. Thus, though 

 we may learn to breathe and cough, yet we continue to do both 

 because we must. Sucking, on the other hand, is always voluntary 

 in the sense that it is invariably prompted by an emotion, a 

 desire, and that it is initiated by the will. Doubtless the new 

 born infant does not consciously desire milk (of which [it has no 

 previous experience) when it sucks, any more than a child desires 

 bodily development when it plays. But when the emotion is 

 awakened by the mother's nipple the act itself is delightful and is 

 instinctively performed as long as the delight continues that is 

 while the milk flows and the hunger is unsatisfied. Were there no 

 prompting emotion, no delight, the act would not be performed. 

 Crying, an act prompted by discomfort or pain, is also entirely 

 instinctive at first. The function of the cry is an appeal for aid ; 

 but here again the infant has no notion of its real meaning. It 

 cries only because it is impelled by a certain emotion, the instinct, 

 to a certain act, the instinctive act. Yet again when tired or 



