RATIONALISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 239 



told you) that another shower was likely to come up in 

 April." 



The father had " common-sense " based on experience ; 

 the boy had none. 



If an adult be deficient in common-sense, we call him 

 " stupid," and we commonly say " he did not stop to 

 think ". The boy acted on a deduction from insufficient 

 data — Because the sun was shining, therefore it will be 

 fine. The boy went through a process of intuitive or 

 automatic reasoning ; but as it was a pure deduction, it 

 was fallible. 



This covers a large field of man's imperfect reasoning, 

 lying between conscious, reflective reasoning, where all 

 the data available are mentally collected ; and the pro- 

 cess of " jumping to conclusions," i.e., deductive and a 

 priori assumptions, which generally turn out to be er- 

 roneous. 



If the word reason be only legitimately restricted to 

 conscious acts performed with some definite end in view ; 

 then instinct in many cases also stands for many acts 

 performed with some definite ends in view, but without 

 the creature knowing what the " ends " may be. It par- 

 takes therefore, of an automatic character, due to some 

 inherent directivity independent of the creature's know- 

 ledge. 



In themselves the acts may have apparently all the 

 characteristics of reason. This leads one to suppose that 

 they were truly reasonable acts in the ancestral per- 

 formers ; but have now become fixed and inherited traits 

 or instincts. 



This may not imply to all, for some are at present 

 quite inexplicable. With regard to Instinct, there are dif- 

 ferent views. Herbert Spencer has described it as " com- 

 pound reflex action " ; but Mr, Ronianes would add the 



