My Schooling 



Nor is it acquired; but it is improved by prac- 

 tice. He who has not the germ of it in his 

 veins will never possess it, in spite of all the 

 pains of a hot-house education. 



That to which we give the name of instinct 

 when speaking of animals is something similar 

 to genius. It is, in both cases, a peak that rises 

 above the ordinary level. But instinct is 

 handed down, unchanged and undiminished, 

 throughout the sequence of a species; it is per- 

 manent and general and in this it differs 

 greatly from genius, which is not transmissible 

 and changes in different cases. Instinct is the 

 inviolable heritage of the family and falls to 

 one and all, without distinction. Here the 

 difference ends. Independent of similarity of 

 structure, it breaks out like genius, here or else- 

 where, for no perceptible reason. Nothing 

 causes it to be foreseen, nothing in the organ- 

 ization explains it. If cross-examined on this 

 point, the Dung-beetles and the rest, each with 

 his own peculiar talent, would answer, were 

 we able to understand them: 



'Instinct is the animal's genius.' 



161 



