xv CONCEPTUAL THOUGHT 355 



replace instinct as the guide of conduct. Indeed, the 

 tendency of ordinary thought is to exaggerate this effect, 

 and to contrast the reason which governs man with the 

 instinct that rules animals. But man is no more regulated 

 by pure reason than animals by pure instinct. As has 

 been indicated above in Chapter VI., 1 the basis of human 

 conduct is hereditary character : the hereditary tendency 

 to feel, to think, to act in a determinate manner. 

 Properly considered, the impulse to reason is itself a 

 hereditary propensity ; and the methods by which we 

 reason, the " laws of thought," are, in the first place, in- 

 herited methods of reaction to the appropriate object. 

 They are indeed improved and refined under the guidance 

 of experience and reflection, but in this respect their history 

 is quite parallel to that of the humbler instincts of animal 

 life. 



But now if hereditary character, mental and moral, be 

 the ultimate basis of human conduct, can we say in 

 general terms how far it is remodelled by the rational use 

 of experience ? What is principally important for our 

 purpose is to compare the remodelling as effected in this 

 stage with the corresponding process in the next lower 

 grade of intelligence. In that grade, we found, first of all, 

 that the instinctive use of means to an end might be re- 

 modelled, as when in the course of training a dog works 

 out a way of meeting the special tricks of different kinds 

 of game. We found, secondly, that out of random actions, 

 or out of mere observation, methods could be built up 

 which have no specific basis in instinct at all. We found, 

 thirdly, that even the ends of action might be in some 

 respects modified by the nature of the individual objects 

 to which by instinct an animal's interests are attached, as 

 when the dog is said to take his character from his master. 

 In all these three cases, instinct on the one hand, and the 

 direct experience of the individual on the other, come into 

 immediate contact ; and a certain modification, whether 

 in the choice of ends or of means, results. What is 

 peculiar to human intelligence apart from the developed 

 influence of rational control in the individual is the rise 

 1 Cf. especially pp. 99 106. 



A A 2 



