n 4 MIND IN EVOLUTION CHAP. 



present purpose. When the stentor anchors itself again, 

 it has apparently learnt something, for if again touched 

 it does not bend aside, but at once contracts and finally 

 moves off. It prefers the remedy previously found 

 successful. The effect very soon wears off, but none 

 the less we see here, clearly marked, the germ of that 

 kind of retentiveness which brings the experience of past 

 results to bear upon present action, in such a way as to 

 secure similar results a second time. We should observe 

 exactly what is learnt. The stentor does not discover 

 that it should avoid some object or seek some object. 

 What it discovers is that one method of avoiding is 

 more fruitful than another. It learns to prefer the most 

 effective of three type reactions. Among ourselves selec- 

 tion of this type is prominent in the acquisition by prac- 

 tice of skill of all sorts, though not so much in the selec- 

 tion of one type of action in preference to another, as 

 rather in the precise adjustment of the magnitude and 

 direction of the method, which at first is made clumsily 

 and needs refining. As we learn to balance on a bicycle 

 or on skates, we begin with rough attempts under the 

 direction of a teacher. These are conscious and pur- 

 posive, but they land us continually in failures through 

 excess or defect. We swerve not enough, or too much, 

 and experience bumps on this side or on that in con- 

 sequence. These experiences have a gradual effect upon 

 our movements, checking the excess, and super-exciting 

 what is defective until we arrive at the mean. It is 

 to be noted, as bearing on the psychological factors 

 involved in acquisitions of this kind, that with us, 

 although the end itself is purposive, and the grosser 

 movements are clearly present to consciousness, the 

 method of adjustment escapes our consciousness. We 

 learn in the end without knowing how, and the processes 

 of inhibition and encouragement go on somehow below 

 the conscious level. 



() Confirmation and inhibition. 



So far we have had actions confirmed or inhibited ac- 

 cording as they succeeded or failed in securing a constant 

 result. We pass to cases in which the direction of the 



