Preliminary Definitions and Illustrations. 23 



while the ninety per cent, are, so far as this particular 

 purpose is concerned, suppressed. The habit thus engen- 

 dered arises out of the co-ordination of a small percentage 

 of certain given congenital limb movements. But if the 

 selected ten per cent., no less than the rejected ninety 

 per cent., were originally congenital, and if this selected 

 ten per cent, when duly co-ordinated are said to constitute 

 an acquired habit, what becomes of the supposed radical 

 distinction between " congenital " on the one hand, and 

 " acquired " on the other ? The answer to this objection 

 is, that what we have to fix our attention upon is, not the 

 raw material, but what is manufactured out of it. The 

 activity which results from the co-ordination of the selected 

 ten per cent, of originally unrelated movements is, as such, 

 a new product ; and this product is the result of acquisition, 

 and is not, as a definite co-ordinated activity, congenital. 

 Just as a sculptor carves a statue out of a block of marble, 

 so does acquisition carve an activity out of a mass of given 

 random movements. Or just as an architect builds a 

 cathedral out of an indefinite mass of material by 

 selecting, shaping, and bringing into relation the given 

 parts, so does acquisition build an habitual response out 

 of a given number of indefinite movements by selecting, 

 modifying, and bringing them into relation. It is the 

 definite, co-ordinated, responsive activity that is acquired. 

 Now, there are certain activities which are congenitally 

 definite, which are inherited ready-made, of which the 

 co-ordination is practically perfect at birth. Instance 

 the swimming of a young moorhen when first it enters 

 the water, or the spinning of a cocoon by a silkworm 

 without previous practice or experience. The definite- 

 ness and co-ordination are here not of individual, but 

 of ancestral origin. And there are other activities the 

 definiteness and co-ordination of which are acquired 



