92 INSTINCTS 



times evoke the same recollections, and, if the 

 recollections differ, the impulses which are released 

 will also be different. The feelings with which we 

 meet an acquaintance will depend upon the 

 recollections that spring up of previous meetings. 

 Thirdl^, there is the difference which will result 

 from our exerting or not exerting our power of 

 will of deliberately choosing or deliberately 

 rejecting. There are, then, an indefinite number of 

 possibilities in a man's behaviour under any 

 stimulus, and human nature is accordingly very 

 uncertain and very inconsistent. 



Are we, then, it may be asked, as fallen leaves, 

 set in a whirl by conflicting gusts of passion, and 

 finally driven this way or that by the strongest oi 

 them ? So, in a measure, may be represented the 

 ever-running drama of man's temptation. But 

 the impulses which we have been attempting to 

 catalogue do not possess the stage to themselves : 

 they are joined, in particular, by three others 

 reason, will, and habit which are of a different 

 character, which act as prompters to the company 

 and may give to one of them the accession of 

 energy that enables it to lead. Reason may be 

 improved by education : will may be invigorated 

 by practice. And by the acquisition of habits 

 through his will power and his imitative faculty 

 man may so facilitate the outwellings of some im- 

 pulses at the expense of others as apparently to 

 transform the character with which he was born. 

 By yielding to an impulse we, so to speak, widen 

 the outlet for it, and proportionately lessen the 

 stream of impulses which compete with it. By 

 working steadily we may enhance the influence of 

 the industrial impulse, as by indulging our 

 appetites we strengthen their hold over us. By 

 habit, then, as well as by will, a man may bring 

 unruly impulses under discipline. Yet his for- 



