Heredity in Man, 327 



them save to supply the requisite faculty. On the other 

 hand, the co-ordination of outgoing impulses may be and 

 often is congenitally definite. But it may be, and often is, 

 the result of individual acquisition. Whereas, therefore, 

 experience is in all cases acquired ; motor co-ordination is 

 in some cases congenital, and in other cases acquired. If 

 this, conclusion stand the test of further investigation 

 and critical study, it will afford an important line of 

 demarcation. We may expect to find further and fuller 

 evidence of inherited co-ordinations of a markedly definite 

 kind ; but we must not expect to find any evidence of 

 inherited knowledge. Co-ordination may be in a surpris- 

 ingly definite manner instinctive ; but knowledge, and 

 that correlated experience which is its precursor, though 

 founded on innate faculty, owes all its definiteness and 

 exactitude to individual experience. 



We are now in a position to consider the relation of 

 the hereditary to the acquired in man. The first fact 

 — one of a broad and general nature — that strikes us is 

 how far what is innate is, in the hereditary endowment of 

 man, in excess of what is instinctive. No one is likely 

 to deny the assertion that man inherits an innate power 

 of acquisition and application, which enables him to cope 

 with an environment of extraordinary complexity, and of 

 a peculiarly specialized nature. But of definite instinctive 

 performance he inherits perhaps a smaller share than any 

 other organism. If, then, the question be asked, whether 

 man has a large or a small endowment of instinct, the 

 answer will depend upon the precise definition of ' instinct.' 

 If we take congenital definiteness as characteristic of in- 

 stinct, we shall agree with Darwin * that " the fewness and 

 the comparative simplicity of the instincts of the higher 

 animals are remarkable as compared with those of the 



* "Descent of Man," vol. i. p. 101. 



