90 INSTINCTS 



aesthetic sensibility, have no sympathy whatever 

 with tune or rhythm: in others any notions of 

 self-restraint appear to be altogether lacking. 



The groups into which impulsive instincts have 

 been gathered, fall, it will be observed, into four 

 pairs of contraries individualistic and social, 

 reproductive and provident, cruel and kind, 

 self-abandoning (aesthetic) and self-restraining 

 (ethical). From this antagonism results the 

 extraordinary variety of human nature. For these 

 impulses, as we have seen, are not of uniform 

 strength in individuals : some men lack almost 

 entirely the hunting instinct, others are abnor- 

 mally affected by music, in some kindness, in 

 others cruelty seems to predominate. By an 

 abnormal development of the individualistic 

 impulse some men are happiest in solitude and 

 are restless and uneasy in the society of their 

 fellows. These peculiarities, 1 like peculiarities of 

 feature and complexion, sensibility and aptitude, 

 are in great measure hereditary, and we can under- 

 stand, then, how there comes about such diversity 

 between the characters of different individuals, 

 families, and races. But we have still to find an 

 explanation for the inconsistent behaviour of 

 individuals how a man may be at one time kind, 

 at another time cruel, at one time transported 

 by ecstatic passion, at other times restrained by 

 the sombrest asceticism. We have to remember 

 that impulses come upon us, not singly, but in 

 assortments : that they mingle with, or react 

 upon, one another, and are affected in particular 



1 Similar inborn eccentricities of impulse oblige the Japanese 

 waltzing mouse to whirl its-elf when running, and the tumbler 

 pigeon to turn somersaults in flight. 



