348 THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES 



efit from this, it was much embarrassed, and in order to 

 complete its hammock seemed forced to start from the 

 third stage, where it had left off, and thus tried to com- 

 plete the already finished work. 



If we suppose any habitual action to become inherited 

 — and it can be shown that this does sometimes happen — 

 then the resemblance between what originally was a habit 

 and an instinct becomes so close as not to be distin- 

 guished. If Mozart, instead of playing the pianoforte 

 at three years old with wonderfully little practice, had 

 played a tune with no practice at all, he might truly 

 be said to have done so instinctively. But it would be 

 a serious error to suppose that the greater number of 

 instincts have been acquired by habit in one generation, 

 and then transmitted by inheritance to succeeding genera- 

 tions. It can be clearly shown that the most wonderful 

 instincts with which we are acquainted, namely, those of 

 the hive-bee and of many ants, could not possibly have 

 been acquired by habit. 



It will be universally admitted that instincts are as 

 important as corporeal structures for the welfare of each 

 species, under its present conditions of life. Under 

 changed conditions of life, it is at least possible that 

 slight modifications of instinct might be profitable to a 

 species; and if it can be shown that instincts do vary 

 ever so little, then I can see no difficulty in natural 

 selection preserving and continually accumulating varia- 

 tions of instinct to any extent that was profitable. It is 

 thus, as I believe, that all the most complex and won- 

 derful instincts have originated. As modifications of cor- 

 poreal structure arise from, and are increased by, use or 

 habit, and are diminished or lost by disuse, so I do not 



