94 INSTINCTS 



mankind towards a state of perfection. As the spirit 

 of utilitarianism, it takes note of the feelings of 

 pleasure and pain, of happiness and unhappiness, 

 which arise from our sensations and our impulses, 

 and pictures the pleasure or happiness of the indi- 

 vidual or the community as the goal towards 

 which conduct should strive. This theory, ac- 

 cepted nakedly as it stands, would sanctify all 

 sensations and impulses which afford pleasure or 

 happiness : but so stark a conclusion would be 

 practically demoralizing, and it has therefore 

 been limited by more or less artificial definitions 

 of pleasure and happiness. We may, then, take it 

 that the multiplicity and variety of the theories to 

 which philosophy has been driven in its search for 

 a science of living, strongly corroborate the view 

 that human nature is a compound of a number of 

 discordant elements. 



The two impulses that remain for our considera- 

 tion do not suggest definite lines of activity, but 

 are compelling guides to general behaviour. They 

 are in the sharpest contrast Directive Instinct 

 and Reason and represent methods of shaping 

 external behaviour to environment that are 

 characteristic, respectively, of the lower and the 

 higher orders of the animal kingdom. 



DIRECTIVE INSTINCT. In some of its manifes- 

 tations this may perhaps be described as a subtle 

 penetrating sympathy which gives a living crea- 

 ture instinctive knowledge of other living crea- 

 tures, or of substances, that subserve its nourish- 

 ment or its reproduction. 1 Such a mysterious 



1 The experiments of M. Fabre have convinced him that the 

 females of some bees can not only lay male or female eggs accord- 

 ing as the provision for the larva (as controlled by experiment) is 

 large or small in cell capacity or food but can actually deter- 

 mine the sex of each egg as it is laid by them. 



