INSTINCT AND REASON. 127 



like a dog in hydrophobia, his eating or chewing grass like 

 a ruminant in various forms of insanity. 



It is both instructive and suggestive to compare current 

 popular with modern scientific definitions of instinct. Popu- 

 lar, and especially theological, opinion has for ages delighted 

 in representing instinct as 



1. Perfect at birth. Whereas education is required, even 

 in such so-called ( natural ' acts as sucking the teat or other- 

 wise seeking proper food. Spalding has shown that instinct 

 is never perfect at birth, that its development is gradual, and 

 that there is, therefore, progressive improvement in or of it. 



2. Unerring or infallible. But our chapters on the ( Errors 

 of Animals ' show how frequent and glaring are the failures 

 or mistakes of so-called instinct, how identical these errors 

 are in kind with those of human reason, and how absurd it 

 is to set up any such plea as infallibility on behalf of animal 

 instinct. 



3. Invariable or undeviating. Our chapters on ' Educa- 

 tion ' and ' Adaptiveness,' as well as other chapters, contain 

 abundant evidence of the incessant and almost infinite 

 variability or plasticity of instinct ; and even in the present 

 chapter it is desirable to make a few special remarks on the 

 variations of instinct. The whole phenomena of improva- 

 bility as developed, for instance, by education show how 

 unfounded is man's belief in the invariableness of instinct. 



4. Blind and independent of observation. But our chapter 

 on 'Investigation' including observation and experiment 

 in and by the lower animals shows that these animals are 

 guided by impressions on vision and other senses just as 

 much as man is, probably more so. 



5. Independent of volition involuntary or non-voluntary. 

 But will is manifested among the very lowest animals, as is 

 pointed out in the chapter on the ( Evolution of Mind in the 

 Ascending Zoological Scale,' while every degree of strength 

 of will is to be met with in such animals as the dog. 



6. Independent of experience and instruction. But the 

 chapters on ' Education ' and its results prove that this sup- 

 posed attribute of instinct is as fallacious as any of the 

 others. 



