66 Heredity and Instinct 



self certain of the actions which the animal sees, to make 

 the sounds which he hears, etc. Now this involves con- 

 nections of the centres of sight, hearing, etc., with certain 

 muscular coordinations. If he have not the coordinations, 

 he cannot imitate ; just as we saw above is the case with 

 intelligence, if the creature have not the function ready, 

 he cannot perform it intelligently. Imitation differs from 

 intelligence in being a general form of coordinated adapta- 

 tion, while intelligence involves a series of special forms.^ 

 But both make use of the apparatus of coordinated move- 

 ment. So we find, as an actual fact generally agreed upon, 

 that by imitation the little animal picks up directly the 

 example, instruction, mode of life, etc., of his private 

 family circle and of his species.^ This, then, enables him to 

 use effectively, for the purposes of his life, the coordina- 

 tions which become instincts later on in the life of the 

 species ; and again we have here two points which directly 

 tend to neutralize the arguments of Romanes from ' selec- 

 tive value' and 'co-adaptation.' The co-adaptations may 

 be held to be gradually acquired, since the coordinations 

 of a partial kind are utilized by the imitative functions 

 before they become instinctive. And the law of ' selective 

 value ' does not get application, since the imitative func- 

 tions, by using these muscular coordinations, suppleme?it 

 them, secure acco7mnodations, keep the creatjire alive, prevent 

 the 'incidence of iiatural selection,' and so give the species 

 all the time necessary to get the variations required for the 

 fidl instinctive performance of the function. 



1 That they are really the same in type and origin is argued in detail in 

 the work Mental Development. 



2 Largely along the line of his native impulses, as recent researches have 

 shown (1902). 



