Heredity of Instincts. 25 



sui generis, a phenomenon so mysterious, so strange, that usually 

 no other explanation of it is offered but that of attributing it to 

 the direct act of the Deity. This whole mistake is the result of a 

 defective psychology, which makes no account of the unconscious 

 activity of the soul. 



But we are so accustomed to contrast the characters of instinct 

 with those of intelligence to say that instinct is innate, invariable, 

 automatic, while intelligence is something acquired, variable, spon- 

 taneous that it looks, at first, paradoxical to assert that instinct 

 and intelligence are identical. 



It is said that instinct is innate. But if, on the one hand, we 

 bear in mind that many instincts are acquired, and that, accord- 

 ing to a theory to be afterwards explained, all instincts are 

 only hereditary habits ; if, on the other hand, we observe that 

 intelligence is in some sense held to be innate by all modern 

 schools of philosophy which agree to reject the hypothesis of the 

 tabula rasa, and to accept either latent ideas or a priori forms of 

 thought, or preordinations of the nervous system and of the 

 organism it will be seen that this character of innateness does not 

 constitute an absolute distinction between instinct and intelligence. 



It is true that intelligence is variable ; but so also is instinct, as 

 we have seen. In winter, the Rhine beaver plasters his wall to 

 windward : once he was a builder, now a burrower ; once he lived 

 in society, now he is solitary. 1 Intelligence can scarcely be more 

 variable. Of this we have elsewhere given other instances. 

 Instinct may be modified, lost, and re-awakened. 



Although intelligence is, as a rule, conscious, it may also become 

 unconscious and automatic, without losing its identity. Neither 

 is instinct always so blind, so mechanical, as is supposed, for at 

 times it is at fault. The wasp that has faultily trimmed a leaf of 

 its paper begins again. The bee only gives the hexagonal form 

 to its cell after many attempts and alterations. It is difficult to 

 believe that the loftier instincts of the higher animals are not 

 accompanied by at least a confused consciousness. There is, 

 therefore, no absolute distinction between instinct and intelli- 

 gence ; there is not a single characteristic which, seriously 



1 Bulletin de la Societt d 1 Anthropologie, 2 e Serie, tome I, p. 307. 



