Instinct and its Lessons 103 



and a young mother doing so for the first time cannot be 

 guided by experience, while she certainly has not an 

 elder instructor at her elbow. 



From examples such as this, which is but one out of 

 thousands, it would seem, as I have said, to be quite 

 clear, that the actions of animals exhibit a purpose, 

 which is not their own. The Wasp cannot deliberately 

 intend to pierce a nerve she has never seen, and of the 

 functions of which she has no knowledge: but her 

 action accurately serves to attain the end of propagating 

 her race. For Darwinism, however, this is a matter of 

 life and death : if there is purpose in Nature, it is all 

 over with the supremacy of Natural Selection. It is not, 

 therefore, to be supposed that the point will be tamely 

 yielded, and as a matter of fact, great pains have been 

 taken to show that purpose is not a necessary part of 

 Nature's machinery. 



It is contended that in this department also, as well 

 as in bodily outfit, Natural Selection has been sufficient 

 to produce and to perpetuate those habits which are 

 beneficial to the race. As Mr. Darwin himself puts it, 1 

 his restrained and scientific tone contrasting agreeably 

 with that of many among his disciples : "It may not be 

 a logical deduction, but to my imagination it is far more 

 satisfactory to look at such instincts not as specially 

 endowed or created instincts, but as small consequences 

 of one general law, leading to the advancement of all 

 organic beings, namely, multiply, vary, let the strongest 

 live and the weakest die." 



How this idea is worked out is not very easy to 

 explain, for, with all desire to understand the expositions 

 of its advocates, I have found them hard to grasp. I 

 think, however, that the following is a fair description. 



Whatever in the way of instinct is beneficial to the 

 race, enabling its representatives to survive in the struggle 

 for existence, has been handed on, and developed 

 in the handing, by the hereditary principle, from parents 

 to offspring. Given that a beneficial habit was once 

 1 Origin of Species, p. 244. 



