

MENTAL TRAITS OF CATERPILLAR AND MAN 387 



a child might survive its father's, but not its mother's neglect. The 

 mother who lacked parental instinct left few offspring behind her. 

 Complementary to the mother's instinct to tend her offspring is the 

 latter's delight in and acceptance of her care. For example, the 

 cat's instinct to carry her kitten in a particular way (by the skin of 

 the neck) is associated with the passive attitude of the kitten in 

 all except the tail, which is tucked out of harm's way when it is 

 so carried. 



643. To sum up, the caterpillar, and all animals at a similar 

 stage of evolution, are mentally a mere bundle of sensations and 

 instincts. The latter, which lie latent till they are awakened in 

 due season by the former, develop under the influence of nutriment, 

 and are nothing other than emotions or desires which impel to 

 the performance of certain definite actions, the instinctive actions, 

 the capacity to perform which is also innate. On the other hand, 

 man has, not only sensations and instincts, but a memory. He 

 develops mentally, not only under the stimulus of nutriment, but 

 also under that of experience (use). His power of feeling sensa- 

 tions and instinctive impulses is innate. His memory, his power 

 of making mental acquirements under the stimulus of experience, 

 is also innate. But all that is stored in his memory, all that comes 

 to it through the sensations and emotions he feels and the 

 conscious and unconscious inferences he draws from them is 

 acquired. Mentally, therefore, he is a bundle of (i) sensations ; (2) 

 instincts, which in him are, in most cases, merely incitements to 

 make acquirements ; (3) capacities for making acquirements (i.e. 

 memory) ; and (4) actual acquirements. Since the caterpillar 

 feels, he has a mind. Man not only feels, but thinks. He has not 

 only sensations and instincts, but, in addition, an intellect. The 

 evolution of mind is beautifully recapitulated by the stages of 

 the mother's care for her offspring. Up to the time of birth, the 

 care is entirely reflex. After birth, it is instinctive in the higher 

 animals. In still higher animals, intelligence steps in, and both 

 aids, and to some extent replaces, instinct. Thus it is intelligence, 

 not instinct, that impels us to send our children to school. 



644. It is not possible, of course, to indicate precisely the stage 

 of evolution (i.e. the kind of animal) in which sensations first 

 appeared as sparks to explode reflex action, and in which, there- 

 fore, mind dawned. Nor is it possible to indicate when sensations 

 first took on tones of pleasure and pain, when desire and will awoke, 

 and instinct and voluntary action appeared. Nor again can we 

 indicate when memory began, and brought in its train as it evolved 



