Essays on Life 



bee and of many ants, could not possibly have 

 been thus acquired." [" Origin of Species," 

 ed., 1859, p. 209.] 



Again we read : " Domestic instincts are 

 sometimes spoken of as actions which have 

 become inherited solely from long-continued 

 and compulsory habit, but this, I think, is 

 not true." Ibid., p. 214. 



Again : " I am surprised that no one has 

 advanced this demonstrative case of neuter 

 insects, against the well-known doctrine of 

 inherited habit, as advanced by Lamarck." 

 [" Origin of Species," ed. 1872, p. 233.] 



I am not aware that Lamarck advanced 

 the doctrine that instinct is inherited habit, 

 but he may have done so in some work that 

 I have not seen. 



It is true, as I have more than once pointed 

 out, that in the later editions of the " Origin 

 of Species " it is no longer " the most serious " 

 error to refer instincts generally to inherited 

 habit, but it still remains "a serious error," 

 and this slight relaxation of severity does not 

 warrant Professor Weismann in ascribing to 



Mr. Darwin an opinion which he emphatically 



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