MENTAL POWERS. 75 



tion, sexual love, the love of the mother for her new-born 

 offspring, the desire possessed by the latter to suck, and so 

 forth. But man, perhaps, has somewhat fewer instincts 

 than those possessed by the animals which come next to 

 him in the series. The orang in the Eastern islands and 

 the chimpanzee in Africa build platforms on which they 

 sleep; and as both species follow the same habit, it might 

 be argued that this was due to instinct, but we cannot feel 

 sure that it is not the result of both animals having similar 

 wants and possessing similar powers of reasoning. These 

 apes, as we may assume, avoid the many poisonous fruits of 

 the tropics, and man has no such knowledge; but as our 

 domestic animals, when taker to foreign lands, and when 

 first turned out in the spring, often eat poisonous herbs, 

 which they afterward avoid, we cannot feel sure that the 

 apes do not learn from their own experience or from that of 

 their parents what fruits to select. It is, however, certain, 

 as we shall presently see, that apes have an instinctive dread 

 of serpents, and probably of other dangerous animals. 



The fewness and the comparative simplicity of the in- 

 stincts in the higher animals are remarkable in contrast 

 with those of the lower animals. Cuvier maintained 

 that instinct and intelligence stand in an inverse ratio to 

 each other ; and some have thought that the intellectual 

 faculties of the higher animals have been gradually de- 

 veloped from their instincts. But Pouchet, in an interest^ 

 ing essay,* has shown that no such inverse ratio really 

 exists. Those insects which possess the most wonderful 

 instincts are certainly the most intelligent. In the ver- 

 tebrate series, the least intelligent members, namely fishes 

 and amphibians, do not possess complex instincts ; and 

 among mammals the animal most remarkable for its instincts, 

 namely the beaver, is highly intelligent, as will be admitted 

 by every one who has read Mr. Morgan's excellent work.f 



Although the first dawnings of intelligence, according to 

 Mr. Herbert Spencer, J have been developed through the 

 multiplication and co-ordination of reflex actions, and 

 although many of the simpler instincts graduate into reflex 



* " L'Instinct cliez les Insectes," "Revue des Deux Mondes ," Feb. 

 1870, p. 690. 



f " The American Beaver and His Works," 1868. 



$ " The Principles of Psychology," 3d edit., 1870, pp. 418-443. 



