72 INSTINCTS 



emotions in themselves not sufficient to direct 

 our actions ? If so, why should we complicate 

 the study of man by supposing him to be actuated 

 by cryptic impulses ? There is a fourfold reply to 

 this objection. In the first place, pleasure and 

 pain unless the meaning of the terms is distorted 

 will not account for numberless peculiarities of 

 behaviour. What pleasure, in the proper sense 

 of the word, is there in self-sacrifice, cruelty, 

 kindness, or asceticism ; in venerating a king, or 

 in deferring to a majority ? The pleasure, it may 

 be replied, of satisfying an impulse. But this con- 

 ceeds the existence of impulses. Secondly, these 

 feelings do not affect the current of our sub- 

 conscious life, our reflex and ideo-motor actions 

 and the all-important functioning of our vital 

 organs. These must be guided by forces which 

 arouse no emotions, and we can hardly suppose 

 that these forces cease to act upon our conscious 

 life. Thirdly, when opposed to a masterful 

 impulse, pleasure and pain may not move us at 

 all. Human behaviour abounds in instances of 

 absolute disregard of physical pain. What will 

 not be endured by a mother's love, a soldier's 

 courage, the self-repression of an ascetic ! Finally, 

 pleasure and pain cannot be original guides to 

 behaviour, since until the consequences of an 

 action have been learnt by experience or in- 

 struction, we cannot know whether it will give 

 one or the other. A child will heedlessly grasp 

 at a wasp. Our feelings most certainly influence 

 our conduct : memories of them persist, actual 

 or symbolic, 1 and move us to repeat or avoid an 

 experience. That is to say, pleasure and pain, 

 while not original impulses, are powerful stimuli 

 to the formation of habits. 



1 That is to say, memories of what we have been told about 

 them. 



