120 Habit and Instinct. 



conceivable, as the language of some writers would seem 

 to imply. Each day of this kitten's life showed me a 

 progress dependent on experience, and the same applies 

 to the dog ; but I must add that, for the first eight or ten 

 weeks, the kitten seemed to get the most out of its ex- 

 perience." Of course, the development of experience is 

 in accordance with, and in large degree determined 

 by, the innate character of the animal. This, too, is fully 

 realized by Dr. Mills ; for he says, in commenting on 

 and comparing the diaries of the pure-bred dog and the 

 mongrel, that "heredity is, was, and ever will be stronger 

 than environment." The hereditary factor in the de- 

 velopment of acquired experience must never be for- 

 gotten. 



But though, as Dr. Mills says, in an intelligent animal, 

 there come after a while to be "almost no pure instincts," 

 that which was given as instinct having been utilized, 

 modified, and adapted through experience and acquisition, 

 yet the fundamental distinction between that which is 

 congenital and instinctive, on the one hand, and that 

 which is acquired through individual experience, on the 

 other hand, remains unaltered. Nor does the fact that 

 all acquisition is rendered possible by an innate faculty 

 for acquiring — nay, more, for acquiring in this way or that 

 in accordance with hereditary character — diminish a whit 

 the value of the distinction. The instinctive action is 

 prior to experience; the acquired action is due to expe- 

 rience. And this distinction holds, no matter how hard 

 it may be to decide whether this action or that is in the 

 main instinctive or in the main acquired. The final 

 products of individual development may be, and no doubt 

 generally are, of twofold origin, partly instinctive and 

 partly due to acquisition ; but this, I repeat, does not in 

 any way serve to annul the distinction between the 



