INFLUENCE OF INTELLIGENCE ON INSTINCT 177 
propensities may be ingrained in the mental constitution, not as 
residual vestiges of old instincts, but as congenital rudiments 
fostered by new habits. It is a well-known and familiar 
fact that the frequent repetition of intelligent accommo- 
dation in certain definite lines begets habits, which so far 
simulate instincts as to be commonly described in popular 
speech as instinctive. Professor Wundt indeed places them 
in the category of ‘“‘acquired instincts” —a usage which we 
regard as unsatisfactory, seeing that it tends to mask the 
distinction between the congenital and acquired factors in 
behaviour, and seeing that we have the well-defined term 
“habits” for acts rendered to a large extent automatic 
through repetition. Lamarckian thinkers regard habit as the 
mother of instinct, assuming that the acquired automatism of 
one generation may be transmitted to become congenital in 
the succeeding generation. ‘This conclusion we provisionally 
reject, regarding the basal assumption as at present unproven. 
But though we cannot accept the view that habit is the mother 
of instinct, we regard it as not improbable that habit may 
be the nurse of congenital propensities. Remembering that 
similar habits are acquired by animals of the same species 
throughout a series of succeeding generations, and assuming 
that congenital variations are constantly occurring in many 
directions, it seems probable that some of these variations will 
be coincident in direction with the acquired habits. Thus 
would arise a congenital propensity to perform the habitual 
acts; and should they be of sufficient importance in the 
conduct of life to be subject to the action of natural selection, 
those animals in which such propensities were congenital 
would survive, whereas those in which no such propensities 
existed would be eliminated. It is unnecessary, however, to 
elaborate this conception further, since it is in line with that 
already discussed in considering the influence of intelligence in 
fostering a diversion of instinct under changing circumstances. 
Then we were considering how habit may lead to a congenital 
change in an old instinct; here we are dealing with the 
development of a new propensity. 
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