INSTINCT AND INTELLIGENCE 87 



have ever advanced a second time with the old fierce- 

 ness and pluck. But even granting fanaticism to be 

 solely responsible, what is it, after all, but the off- 

 spring of downright blind ignorance, which springs 

 from the overwhelming force of surrounding circum- 

 stances, which is intensified by the want of a higher 

 and broader education, and by the want of the restrain- 

 ing, softening, and refining influences of civilisation ? 



That ignorance in such case is bliss, or, to be more 

 explicit, is due to a deficiency of intelligence and 

 education, and to nothing else, I believe. Unless, per- 

 haps, it is due to a defective development of the nervous 

 organisation, which would seem to deaden the sense of 

 moral feeling, but which elevates and gives additional 

 impetus to the physical ; while a corresponding in- 

 crease would tend to promote greater moral courage, 

 although combined with a certain amount of physical 

 hesitation, seems to me clear enough, though I have 

 not, I am afraid, expressed myself as explicitly as I 

 should like to. 



The more highly educated and intelligent people 

 are, and the deeper their knowledge and the wider 

 their experience, the greater innate nervousness and 

 trepidation do they feel in the presence of danger. At 

 the same time they control and conceal it by a strong 

 effort, and by sheer force of moral courage, while those 

 of lesser intellect, or of coarser moral fibre, will betray 

 emotion or fear. There are, of course, exceptions to 

 this, when the nervous system is either blunted or 

 deadened, or has never been actively developed, that 

 the individual does not know what fear is ; but these 

 cases are very exceptional, unless we include the 



