THEORIES OF INSTINCTIVE ACTION. 401 



which they appear ; or, when against the welfare of the indi- 

 vidual, they are for the welfare of the species to which he 

 belongs. As both classes of acts are in the same line, and 

 are alike in their results, it becomes difficult, not to say 

 impossible, to apply a satisfactory test for determining the 

 class to which certain acts belong. The young bird, just 

 from the shell, raises its head and opens its bill to receive 

 food. Whether that act is simply reflex, or whether it be- 

 longs to those acts properly denominated instinctive, we can- 

 not certainly determine. But the act is in the same line as the 

 instinctive work of the bird, when, becoming older, it seeks 

 food for itself. Instinctive acts commend themselves to rea- 

 son as the best possible for the being that performs them ; 

 and in the lower animals they so simulate intelligent action, 

 and seem to be so intimately joined to it in man, that it is 

 very difficult to apply, in a satisfactory manner, any test for 

 distinguishing one kind from another. Hence arises the 

 difficulty of proving that the lower animals ever perform any 

 acts higher in kind, than instinctive. 



Theories. — The prevailing theories in regard to instinctive 

 action may, in the main, be reduced to three. 



1. That these impulses and capabilities were the direct 

 gift of the Creator to each species, as an essential outfit. 

 This theory would be satisfied with the doctrine of special 

 creations, or the doctrine of evolution according to a plan, by 

 which the developments of new organs and new instincts are 

 coordinated in the development of new species from one form, 

 as the organs and instincts of the individual are coordinated 

 in its development from the egg. The essential thing in this 

 theory is, that each species shall have, as an original gift, all 

 those instinctive powers and capabilities essential to their 

 existence as a species, and development as individuals. 



2. That what we call instinct is simply the accumulated 

 results of individual experience, fixed by repetition and 

 received by the living races b}' inheritance. Every instinct, 

 according to Lewes, is an "organized experience," a " Lapsed 

 Intelligence;"* "its genesis is from actions that at first were 

 tentative; in other words, intelligent." f 



* Nature, April, 1872. 



t Problems of Life and Mind, Vol. I., pp. 20S, 209. 

 51 



