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difficult to believe that the loftier instincts of the higher 

 animals are not accompanied by at least a confused con- 

 sciousness. There is, therefore, no absolute distinction 

 between instinct and intelligence ; there is not a single 

 characteristic which, seriously considered, remains the ex- 

 clusive property of either. The contrast established between 

 instinctive acts and intellectual acts is, nevertheless, perfectly 

 true, but only when we compare the extremes. As instinct 

 rises it approaches intelligence ; as intelligence descends it 

 approaches instinct. This must not be forgotten ; and while 

 differences are borne in mind, the resemblances also must 

 be noted." 



As to the origin of instincts the Darwinian theory accounts 

 for them, as it accounts for the formation and disappearance 

 of species, by spontaneous variations, the struggle for life, 

 natural selection, time, and heredity ; regarding instincts, as 

 they now exist, as very complex, and formed by the gradual 

 accumulations of the two latter factors. As Darwin has 

 studied principally the physiological phenomena, so Mr. 

 Herbert Spencer has devoted himself to the psychological 

 aspect of the question, and seeks to describe the evolutional 

 process which has deduced complex from simple instincts by 

 heredity and selection. Assuming the unity of composition 

 of psychological phenomena, he regards instinct as repre- 

 senting one of the first stages in the ascending evolution of 

 mind. In the faculties of instinct, memory, reason, etc., he 

 sees only " a convenient way of grouping and naming phe- 

 nomena, but no real difference. These phenomena form a 

 series in which there are only insensible transitions from class 

 to class. In this ascending series instinct occupies an inter- 

 mediate place between reflex action and memory ; instinct 

 may be regarded as a sort of organised memory, and memory 

 as a sort of nascent instinct." 



