878 Dynamic Theory. 



she disappeared, and has not been seen since. Was it reason, or instinct 

 that caused the mother cat to distribute the kittens to different homes, 

 so that all might be adopted and the lives of all spared? (Youths' 

 Companion, Oct. '89.) 



The observation of the ways of animals leads to the conclusion that 

 they exhibit the following mental qualities : ' ' Surprise, fear, sexual 

 and parental affection, social feelings, pugnacity, industry, curiosity, 

 jealousy, anger, playfulness, affection, sympathy, emulation, pride, 

 resentment, esthetic love of ornament, terror, grief, hate, cruelty, be- 

 nevolence, revenge, rage, shame, remorse, deceit," cunning, sense of 

 the ludicrous, ideas of duty and loyalty to a trust, and probably super- 

 stition. 



CHAPTER LXXVIII. 



INSTINCT. 



All organic action being reflex or automatic, the rapidity of the re- 

 sponse to a stimulation, depends upon the perfection of the adaptation 

 of the machine to its stimulating force. Practice and habit constitute 

 the education of the organic machine and develop it ; that is, cause it to 

 work more readily and easily, and with less expenditure of en*rgu, and 

 less friction. If two men see the same object, as a work of aic, or a 

 machine, or a book, one will get from it a great many more ideas than 

 the other; that is to say, more cerebral organs will be excited or con- 

 structed in his case. For this reason, then, simply that his brain is the 

 more easily set going, we call him the smarter man. If a person is set 

 to work upon a task which is to be repeated a great number of times, 

 such as the manufacture of a particular article, the first one he makes 

 will require a long time and be botched and clumsy. But after making 

 a great many, the time required will be much less, and the product 

 much neater and more workmanlike. Moreover the effect on the work- 

 man himself will become different. At first he has to give the work 

 the closest attention] every detail is watched and he must concentrate all 

 his mind upon it, and not think of anything else. But after awhile it 

 becomes so easy that it is performed with very slight attention, the eyes 

 need not be fixed constantly upon the work, and the thoughts may some- 

 times wander off to other things. Now, as we have seen, the degree to 

 which the attention is enlisted is an index of the amount of blood 

 consumed in the action, and of the vividness of consciousness, if any 

 be aroused by it, and therefore of the amount of energy consumed in 

 the work. The constant tendency of the habitual energies is to reduce 

 friction and consciousness, and to perform the function with a con- 



