INSTINCT AND REASON. 139 



definition, so long as we cannot draw the boundary line 

 between them it is impossible to determine the range of in- 

 stinct and reason respectively in man and other animals, or in 

 any individual, species, or genus of the latter. Using the 

 terms in their present vague and contrasted acceptations, we 

 are quite justified in asserting that, even in man the lower 

 races and the least cultivated of the higher races instinct 

 predominates over reason, impulsive over deliberate action ; 

 while in many of the lower animals such as well-bred, 

 thoroughly trained dogs reason predominates over instinct, 

 reflection over impulse. 



Just as there is a frequent marked dominance of one in- 

 stinct over another, there is an equally common dominance, 

 then, of instinct over reason, or of reason over instinct. The 

 former is illustrated by the well-trained elephant that be- 

 comes bogged in a quicksand. The instinct of self-preserva- 

 tion causes it to forget all its obedience and discipline 

 the results of education, which could operate only on 

 improvable reason so that it seizes its well-known, and 

 probably well-loved, mahout in order to give itself some 

 solid purchase for its feet ; and, knowing this, the mahout 

 in such a case betakes himself at once beyond the animal's 

 reach, for to be caught by it in such extremity would be 

 equivalent to certain death to the man. On the other hand, 

 the dominance of reason, or of the results of reason obe- 

 dience, discipline, self-denial is illustrated by a team of 

 Eskimo dogs watching by themselves over and beside a dead 

 reindeer for hours, and at last delivering it up untouched to 

 their human masters (Wood), the imperious sense of hunger 

 being here successfully overcome, the extreme temptation 

 successfully resisted. Education, training, discipline in- 

 volving, it may be, a wholesome dread of punishment 

 overcomes natural antipathies and appetites for instance, 

 in predatory animals, such as a wild eat that was trained to 

 take care of a tame sparrow, or in dogs brought up to watch 

 sparrows, blackbirds, partridges, and hares, their natural 

 game (Wynter). 



It is important, in all considerations as to their real 

 nature, to bear in mind that, just as various instincts co- 



