128 INSTINCT AND REASON. 



7. Without consciousness. But, on the one hand, con- 

 sciousness occurs not only among the lowest animals, and 

 even among plants, while, on the other, there are many so- 

 called mental operations in man that take place in the 

 absence of consciousness such, for instance, as the phe- 

 nomena of what is now called unconscious cerebration, and 

 of cerebral, spinal, or nervous reflex or automatic action. 



8. Without knowledge of the end in view. But it is 

 shown in many parts of the present work that animals are 

 actuated by very definite motives, and have very distinct 

 purposes, objects, or aims in view. 



9. Its object is simply the physical well-being of the 

 individual the preservation of the species. But the count- 

 less instances of sympathy and self-sacrifice of life-saving 

 of other animals, including man himself emphatically con- 

 tradict such an ungenerous and unjust assertion one that, 

 like so many others relating to animal instinct, we can 

 scarcely believe to have been seriously propounded by any 

 person acquainted with the character and habits of such an 

 animal as the dog. 



10. Beyond control. We know, however, that many ani- 

 mals in many ways exercise an amount of self-control that 

 would do credit to man even in his highest states of 

 civilisation. 



11. Rapidity of action is such that there is no time for re- 

 flection. And yet we know that many animals in proportion 

 to their maturity or age, their experience and the necessity 

 for the employment of such mental faculties exercise reflec- 

 tion in the same ways and under the same circumstances that 

 self-sufficient man himself does. They take time to consider 

 the probable results or consequences of different lines of 

 conduct, and after most mature deliberation including the 

 balancing of chances or probabilities they resolve on a 

 given course and carry it into effect. 



12. Arising without effort as impulses. But so do ideas 

 and feelings of all kinds in the most intellectual man. 



13. Without choice. But we know that, in an infinitude 

 of ways, animals show preferences and make the most deli- 

 berate selections. 



