INSTINCT AND SENSUOUS COGNITION. 53 



which they are gifted by nature, in ways significant of 

 feelings of craving, of anticipations of ends, and of 

 adaptation of means which considered in themselves 

 imply far higher degrees of conscious ideation than, so 

 far as we can judge, really exists. To such complex 

 conditions of consciousness with their motor accom- 

 paniments we give the term instincts. " x ) In other 

 words: Instinct consists in the sensuous cognition 

 and appetency of the agent, which . enables it to per- 

 form purposeful actions without becoming conscious 

 of the purpose as such. The satisfaction of the ani- 

 mal's cravings guided by sense-experience normally 

 coincides with its general welfare. How instinctive 

 actions are actually performed by the agent, which 

 nerves and which parts of the spinal cord and brain 

 come into play, how external stimuli affect the end- 

 organs of sense and set up a nerve-commotion that is 

 propagated to the brain and finally acts upon the ani- 

 mal soul to elicit a purposeful action, all this is "sec- 

 ondary and of no moment for our present dissertation. 

 For our purpose it is sufficient to have brought out the 

 principal characteristics of instinct and instinctive ac- 

 tivities which are (1) final tendency without con- 

 sciousness of final tendency; (2) sensuous cognition 

 and appetency normally combining "the specific object 

 of pleasure to the animal" "with the best and most 

 appropriate object of its well-being. ' ' 



l ) I.e., p. 600. 



