HUMAN APTITUDE 97 



deposited has been removed: it does not per- 

 ceive that its labour has become objectless. When, 

 having completed its cell, having deposited its egg, 

 and stored provisions for the larva, it returns with 

 clay to cover the orifice, and finds that during its 

 absence the cell has been destroyed, it will not 

 appreciate the effect of this calamity, and will 

 carefully affix the clay on to the place where the 

 cell would be if undestroyed. It appears, as we 

 shall see, that insects are not altogether devoid 

 of reasoning powers. But, when acting under the 

 obsession of directive instinct, they seem generally 

 unable to make use of them. 



All animals are dependent upon directive 

 instinct for their development, growth, and the 

 functioning of their internal organs. Inverte- 

 brate animals also rely upon it for the guidance of 

 most of their external activities. The communal 

 life of a bee-hive, or an ant's nest, is almost 

 wholly regulated by it, in complications of con- 

 structive art, social organisation, and even civil 

 government, the elaboration of which appears to 

 us to be inconceivable without the use of reasoning 

 intelligence. As we ascend the scale of verte- 

 brates, directive instinct loses its efficiency and 

 resigns its paramount authority, until in man it is 

 almost extinguished as a guiding force in beha- 

 viour. To hold tight and to suck are almost the 

 only innate accomplishments of a new-born baby. 



But it would be extraordinary were so vigorous 

 a force to vanish entirely, and we may believe 

 that it survives in men, albeit with changed au- 

 thority. We may, perhaps, trace to its influence 

 our aptitudes for acquiring the accomplishments of 

 our kind. We are born in the utmost inefficiency 

 unable to walk, to speak, or to realize our im- 

 pressions : but the facility with which we learn 

 these ideo-motor processes seems to indicate that 



