The Modern Theory of Instinct 2>11 



reflection. It is his business. Does this hfelong 

 practice create a transmissible habit ? Are the 

 sons, the grandsons, the great-grandsons any 

 the wiser, without instruction ? No, the thing 

 has to start afresh each time. Man is not pre- 

 disposed by nature to this butchery. 



If, on her side, the Wasp excels in her art, it 

 is because she is born to follow it, because she is 

 endowed not only with tools, but also with the 

 knack of using them. And this gift is original, 

 perfect from the outset : the past has added 

 nothing to it, the future will add nothing to it. 

 As it was, so it is and will be. If you see in it 

 naught but an acquired habit, which heredity 

 hands down and improves, at least explain to 

 us why man, who represents the highest stage 

 in the evolution of your primitive plasma, is 

 deprived of the Hke privilege. A paltry insect 

 bequeaths its skill to its offspring ; and man 

 cannot. What an immense advantage it would 

 be to humanity if we were less liable to see the 

 worker succeeded by the idler, the man of talent 

 by the idiot ! Ah, why has not protoplasm, 

 evolving by its own energy from one being into 

 another, reserved until it came to us a little of 

 that wonderful power which it has bestowed so 

 lavishly upon the insects ! The answer is that 

 apparently, in this world, cellular evolution is 

 not everything. 



