98 INSTINCTS 



we are endowed with special aptitudes for them. 

 Directive instinct changes its role : when it no 

 longer instructs, it smooths the path of learning. 

 In man this change is almost complete : we may 

 observe it progressing in the animals below him. 

 The innate equipment of all the higher animals 

 appears to include aptitudes as well as ready- 

 made accomplishments. Some birds appear to 

 need lessons in flying from their parents : thrushes 

 may be seen instructing their young to break 

 snail shells. Aptitudes vary in individuals not 

 perhaps very greatly, when we consider how much 

 of them is common to all of us but the dif- 

 ferences are sufficient to distinguish talented from 

 untalented men. Some persons are endowed 

 with special aptitudes for games, others for 

 learning languages, others for literary expression, 

 others for mathematics. Their talents may not 

 be accompanied with strong impulses for using 

 them : we all know of talented but idle men. On 

 the other hand, impulses may be possessed without 

 special aptitudes : such is the case with tongue- 

 tied poets, with earnest but unsuccessful golfers. 

 When impulses are combined with special apti- 

 tudes we have the equipment of an able man. 



If talent is nothing more than an addition to an 

 aptitude which is possessed by most men, and is 

 not an endowment peculiar in itself, we can 

 understand why it should so often appear unex- 

 pectedly in families : it is a thing not of kind, but 

 of degree, and would be liable to such variations 

 as bring about differences in colour of hair, or 

 complexion, between children of the same parents. 

 And just as these physical traits, however varying 

 in the individuals of a family, tend towards 

 uniformity within the family, so may we expect 

 special developments of aptitudes to be frequently 

 hereditary in particular families. 



