CH. III.] PROPAGATION OF THE SPECIES. 157 



The Instinct for the Propagation of the Species. 



289. By the pre-ordination of nature (263), with a view to 

 the continuation of the species, there arises in animals an 

 agreeable external sensation, the sensational stimulus of the 

 instinct for propagation, the sentient actions of which are 

 manifested by remarkably active vital movements (253, — 

 Haller's * Physiology,^ § 870), and this arises at a time when 

 the organism is in the most suitable state, at a certain age, 

 during a fixed period of existence, for the most part periodically, 

 in the sexual organs given by nature for this express object, by 

 means of natural inducements prepared beforehand, and already 

 described (268, 874); these depend on a plethoric state, nutri- 

 tious food, or food stimulating the nerves of the sexual organs, 

 wine, condiments, much rest, idleness, good living, freedom from 

 care, and various external sensations and other conceptions. In 

 man, who, as regards his instincts, is subject to the same laws 

 as brutes, this sensational stimulus is induced by a glance, an 

 imagination, a foreseeing, which surprises him without his 

 desire or even against it ; and he terms this operation which 

 amazes him, this wonderful change (263), the enchantment of 

 love. He is so little informed as to the design of nature in 

 this wondrous emotion, that at first he considers it to be the 

 feeling of friendship or of great esteem, in short, to be a noble 

 instinct, not arising from sensual stimuli, until at last he learns, 

 from its influence on the sexual organs, that it tends to an 

 object not observed by him, the excitement of the flesh (88), 

 and that it is the instinct for sexual congress, to which all the 

 stimuli converge. In both sexes, the instinct consists in the 

 desire to enjoy this sensual pleasure in the greatest degree which 

 takes place in coitu. Consequently, just as sexual congress is 

 the design of nature in this instinct (265), so is it also its object 

 in animals, which know nothing more of the ulterior object, 

 namely, the propagation of the species (266). The sentient 

 actions of the obscure foreseeing of an agreeable external sen- 

 sation, are manifested imperfectly as they actually occur (271), 

 and in the eff'ort of the animal-sentient forces to attain to these 

 imperfect movements consist the sentient actions of the instinct 

 itself. The instinct acts, consequently, in the mechanical 



