PLAY AND INSTINCT. 69 



ness remains a mere memory, without motive power. As 

 soon, however, as the idea affects the will, we have no 

 longer a purely instinctive action to deal with, but one 

 that is partly instinctive and partly voluntary. Inas- 

 much, also, as conscious action often tends to become 

 instinctive, I may take account of that fact, and accord- 

 ingly formulate this approximate definition: The actions 

 of men and animals are instinctive when originated by 

 means of hereditary brain tracts (presumably of selective 

 origin) and without an idea serving as their motive. 



The fact that the same act may be partly instinctive 

 and partly voluntary is of importance in many con- 

 nections, not least in that of play, in which the higher 

 the stage the more the individual accommodations are 

 involved. Formerly extreme theorists entertained the 

 view that only animals have instinct, only man has 

 reason. Cuvier believed that the relation of instinct 

 and intelligence was that of inverse ratio; Flourens, the 

 same. Darwin opposes Cuvier's idea, but thinks that 

 "man perhaps has somewhat less than the animals 

 standing next him," and that the instincts of higher 

 animals are less numerous and simpler than those of 

 the lower orders.* James, on the contrary, reverses the 

 proportion, and says that man is probably the animal 

 with most instincts, f This is perfectly true if it is borne 

 in mind that some actions are partly voluntary and 

 partly instinctive. Take, for instance, lovers of the 



* Descent of Man, ed. in one vol., p. 75. 



f The Principles of Psychology, vol. ii, p. 389. Pouchet, too, in 

 the Revue des deux mondes, February, 1870, and Alix (L'esprit de 

 nos betes, 1890) express the view that the most intelligent animals 

 have an especially large number of instincts. [See also Lloyd Mor- 

 gan, Habit and Instinct, for a general discussion and (p. 328) for a 

 criticism of James. The same author collects and criticises Some 

 Definitions of Instinct, in Natural Science, May, 1895.] 



