VOLUNTARY ACTION 227 



power of making mental acquirements is much greater. The 

 young individual does not begin existence in an entirely 

 hostile world. He need not, therefore, be so well equipped 

 mentally and physically as, for instance, the young dragon-fly, 

 or as he himself must be later when the parental protection 

 is withdrawn. Opportunity is thus afforded for supplying 

 deficiencies of instinct by the exercise of such powers of 

 making useful mental acquirements as he may possess. This 

 power of learning, of profiting by experience, is what we term 

 intelligence and reason. In the higher animals the equipment 

 of intelligence is always in inverse proportion to the equip- 

 ment of instinct. It is, therefore, proportionate, as a rule, to 

 the helplessness of the individual at the beginning of conscious 

 life, and consequently to the amount and duration of the care 

 which must be lavished on him by the parent. 1 A chicken 

 who knows how to run, and peck, and hide from danger as 

 soon as it is out of the egg is less intelligent than a parrot or 

 a jackdaw ; a lamb is less intelligent than a dog or a monkey. 

 A human infant, whose subsequent acquirements will be 

 immense and whose mother's care is strenuous and prolonged, 

 is so helpless that it cannot even seek the breast. 



386. When animals are social, and so have the opportunity 

 of learning not only from their parents but from other 



1 This statement requires qualification, or rather expansion. Com- 

 parative deficiency of instinct is not the only cause of the helplessness 

 of young animals. Thus a young pigeon is very helpless at birth, but 

 ultimately it does not become more intelligent, if so intelligent as an 

 adult domestic fowl. Much depends on the manner in which the food 

 is collected by the parents. All animals that tend their young, but go 

 far afield for food, have helpless offspring. The lioness leaves her cubs 

 in the lair ; the pigeon, the seagull, and the hawk leave their fledglings 

 in the nest. But the young deer and the young pheasant from the first 

 wander with their parents. For obvious reasons, in the one case helpless- 

 ness is an advantage, in the other activity. Instinct, however, is not 

 really lacking to helpless young animals of this class. Its development 

 is merely deferred to a time when it is useful. The instinct of flight, 

 for example, is developed in the young pigeon as soon as the growth of 

 the wings renders flight possible. The helplessness of the carnivorous 

 mammals, however, seems due, in part at least, to a real lack of instinct. 

 The clumsy young puppy, for instance, appears distinctly to acquire 

 strength of muscle and freedom of movement. His playfulness is clear 

 evidence that his powers of making physical and mental acquirements 

 are great. (See 400-2.) It should be noted also that the family life, 

 especially when animals of the same species mix together, depends 

 entirely on the power of making mental acquirements. The parents 

 and child, the husband and wife, must learn to recognize each other. 

 They cannot, from the nature of the case, recognize one another 

 instinctively. Family life, therefore, is developed in proportion to the 

 development of the power of making mental acquirements. 



