1 62 Habit and Instinct. 



There is a point of considerable importance to which 

 attention may here be drawn. Assuming that the habit 

 of the bullfinch is due to intelligence, let us carefully 

 note the role that it plays. It is essentially selective. 

 The bullfinch, to begin with, pulls the primroses to pieces 

 with what may be termed an exuberance of activity. But 

 in the midst of it all, just one particular snip at the tube 

 of the flower is found to provide the ovules and the sweet 

 sauce. All the rest is then neglected, and the one effectual 

 snip selected for repetition.* The role of intelligence, 

 therefore, is not to furnish a new activity which shall be 

 adapted to what we, the onlookers, call the end in view, 

 but to select from a number of relatively indeterminate 

 activities that one which experience proves to be effectual. 



It has again and again been pointed out that the origin 

 of variations and their selection in the struggle for 

 existence, are different problems, however intimately they 

 may be associated in the process of evolution. The fitter 

 variations must be given ere they can survive. So now 

 it must be pointed out that the origin of activities some 

 of which may be adaptive is a different problem from that 

 of the intelligent selection of those which are adaptive. 

 The more adaptive activities must be given ere they can be 

 selected from among those which are less adaptive. 



Herein, then, lies the utility of the restlessness, the 

 exuberant activity, the varied playfulness, the prying 

 curiosity, the inquisitiveness, the meddlesome mischievous - 

 ness, the vigorous and healthy experimentalism of the 

 young. These afford the raw material upon which 

 intelligence exercises its power of selection. Observers of 

 human life have not failed to contrast this youthful 



* Prof. Mark Baldwin has developed this point in his interpretation of 

 the psychology of the child. See his " Mental Development in the Child 

 and the Kace," chap. v. ; and American Naturalist, July, 1896, p. 548. 



