THE ELEMENTS OF MIND 215 



remarkable adaptations to uniform conditions of 

 life) would seem to be rather ancestral than of the 

 present time, as is shown by the fact that many 

 of the adaptations are directed rather to past con- 

 ditions of life than to those which now hold good. 

 In the presence of new emergencies to which their 

 instincts have not fitted them, these poor creatures 

 are often completely at a loss. We cannot but 

 conclude, therefore, that, although acting under 

 somewhat different and less favourable conditions, 

 instinct occupies fully as large a space in the 

 psychology of man as it does in that of the ant, 

 while human intelligence is far less unerring and 

 hence markedly inferior to our own." 



*Are these views much more absurd than the 

 views of those who, on the evidence which we 

 at present possess, attribute all the activities of 

 ant-life to instinct ?' (21) 



Reason is the power of adapting means to ends 

 which is acquired from experience or instruction. 

 All animals that profit by experience, therefore, or 

 that learn from instruction — that is, are teachable 

 — exercise reason. 



The line of demarkation between instinct and 

 reason is a mezzotint, reason being often instinc- 

 tive, and instinct being as frequently flavoured 

 with judgment, ' Instinct is usually regarded as 

 a special property of the lower animals, and con- 

 trasted with the conscious reason of man. But 

 just as reason may be looked upon as a higher 

 form of the understanding or intellect, and not as 

 something essentially distinct from them, so a 



