XIII 



SOCIAL INSTINCTS 



hunger, or, as in the case of Mr. Lloyd Morgan's chicks, 

 the experience of. a repulsive taste may operate so as to 

 overcome subsequently the general tendency to peck. In 

 the higher stage we find action dictated by purposes. We 

 also find the natural reaction to a sensory stimulus subor- 

 dinated to some remoter end in which the animal's general 

 habits of life are concerned. That is to say, we have 

 purpose controlling impulse, and such a form of control is 

 the germ which, as purposes are widened and systematised, 

 develops into the rational self control of human morality. 

 Pathetic stories are well known of dogs impelled to bite 

 under the extreme pain of the dressing of a wound, and 

 checking the impulse, or converting it into a caress. The 

 self-restraint of a pointer is the result of severe training, 

 but we must not regard it as the work of mere blind habit 

 superseding blind impulse, for as Diezel remarks, 1 the 

 same dog that will refrain from following a hare in his 

 master's presence, will eagerly chase it if unobserved. The 

 impulse is not extinct, but is controlled by knowledge of 

 results. There is no need to multiply instances, as the 

 broad fact is generally admitted, and the only question is 

 as to its proper analysis. I will not here discuss whether 

 the appearance of self-control in the observed instances is 

 itself enough to prove the higher degree of intelligence of 

 which we have been speaking. It is at least something 

 of a corroboration. 



1 In Brehm's Thierleben, II. pp. 144, 145. 



