io6 Unconscious Memory 



alleged that the more limited is the range of the conscious 

 mental activity of any living being, the more fully developed 

 in proportion to its entire mental power is its performance 

 commonly found to be in respect of its own limited and 

 special instinctive department. This holds as good with 

 the lower animals as with men, and is explained by the 

 fact that perfection of proficiency is only partly dependent 

 upon natural capacit}^, but is in great measure due to 

 practice and cultivation of the original faculty. A philo- 

 logist, for example, is unskihed in questions of juris- 

 prudence ; a natural philosopher or mathematician, in 

 philology ; an abstract philosopher, in poetical criticism. 

 Nor has this anything to do with the natural talents of the 

 several persons, but follows as a consequence of their 

 special training. The more special, therefore, is the 

 direction in which the mental activity of any living being 

 is exercised, the more will the whole developing and 

 practising power of the mind be brought to bear upon 

 this one branch, so that it is not surprising if the special 

 power comes ultimately to bear an increased proportion 

 to the total power of the indi^ddual, through the contrac- 

 tion of the range within which it is exercised. 



Those, however, who apply this to the elucidation of 

 instinct should not forget the words, " in proportion to 

 the entire mental power of the animal in question," and 

 should bear in mind that the entire mental power becomes 

 less and less continually as we descend the scale of animal 

 life, whereas proficiency in the performance of an in- 

 stinctive action seems to be much of a muchness in all 

 grades of the animal world. As, therefore, those per- 

 formances which indisputably proceed from conscious 

 deliberation decrease proportionately with decrease of 

 mental power, while nothing of the kind is observable in 

 the case of instinct — it follows that instinct must involve 

 some other principle than that of conscious intelligence. 

 We see, moreover, that actions which have their source 

 in conscious intelligence are of one and the same kind, 



