158 Habit and Instinct. 



contrast with the stereotyped stupidity (as it appears to 

 us from its relative lack of plasticity) of the ordinary hen. 

 And even with human beings there is at least some truth 

 in the sigh with which the philosopher regarded the 

 bright and active Eton and Harrow boys at Lords', when 

 he remembered that, ere many years had passed, they would 

 become mere bishops and members of parliament. But 

 there always remains, it must be noted, over and beyond 

 the period of youthful plasticity, a greater or less balance 

 of intelligence for further adaptation throughout adult life. 

 The higher the mental grade of the organism, and the 

 more varied the conditions of that life, the greater the 

 balance of intelligence that remains — only, however, to 

 grow less and less as maturity verges on senility. 



It is on the relation of intelligence to repetition, and 

 hence to that acquired habit which becomes second nature, 

 that we have to fix our attention. For those activities 

 which are frequently repeated, become ingrained in the 

 organic nature as more or less fixed habits * of response ; 

 and the more firmly the habit is ingrained, the more 

 imperious is the impulse to the performance of the habit. 

 Just in so far as the individually acquired nature gains 

 strength and permanence does the need for its realization 

 under the appropriate conditions of stimulation increase 

 in force and insistency. The craving which accompanies 

 the thwarting of habitual activities increases in strength 

 pari passu with the growth of acquired automatism. The 

 organism which to begin with was a creature of congenital 

 impulse becomes more and more the creature of acquired 

 impulse. It is a new being, but one with needs yet more 

 imperious than those with which it was congenitally 

 endowed. 



* These are the acquired instincts of Prof. Wundt, " Lectures on Human 

 and Animal Psychology," Trans., p. 397. 



