510 THE EVOLUTION OF MIND 



termination of action in relation to the result that will 

 accrue. 



Another great difficulty lies in the fact that at stage after 

 stage, as we have seen, there is a tendency to organisation 

 or automatisation of capacities for behaviour, and if we 

 attend too exclusively to these we are apt to get the im- 

 pression that the naturalist's suggestion of mind is a mere 

 courtesy to the psychologist. But it is necessary to look 

 into the less conspicuous deviations from routine which some- 

 times show the hand of mind on the reins, and to inquire 

 into the stages of initiative and testing which may have pre- 

 ceded the automatisation. 



Perhaps the biggest difficulty of all is to think of germinal 

 variations supplying the appropriate materials for the evolu- 

 tion of complicated instinctive behaviour or for capacities 

 of perceptual inference. Nowhere does the problem of the 

 origin as distinguished from the survival of fit variations 

 appear so baffling as here. 



§ 3. Provisional Sketch of the Evolution of Behaviour. 



What, then, shall we say of the Evolution of Behaviour? 



(a) A starting-point may be found in the tentative move- 

 ments of simple creatures, swimming about in the pond, 

 called hither and thither by slight differences in temperature, 

 oxygenation, and the like, or, if there is no particular stim- 

 ulus, moving in straight lines, or curves, or spirals — ex- 

 pending their energy, expressing themselves in modes of loco- 

 motion which are often characteristic, yet every now and 

 then striking the note of tentative endeavour. There is an 

 occasional new departure, some experiment, a hint of the bent 

 bow. As Professor Jennings has graphically described, thei 

 amoeba hunts another amoeba, captures it, loses it, recaptures 



