122 MEMORY, HABIT, AND IMITATION 



throw light upon its propensities, it appears to 

 have no particular preference for the spot in 

 which it finds itself on emerging from the cocoon. 

 Yet it seeks very persistently a site for its nest 

 which has only become available for it since man 

 has constructed substantial habitations. The 

 American grey squirrel has the practice of burying 

 nuts in the ground : squirrels taken from the 

 nest when quite immature and reared in cap- 

 tivity will make believe to bury nuts in a carpet. 

 The practice is then inborn, not acquired by 

 imitation. Yet its beginnings may be more 

 reasonably ascribed to habit than to casual 

 varieties in a reproductive cell. We must remem- 

 ber that Life is not uniform in its methods, and 

 we should not conclude that habit has been the 

 origin of no instincts because we find that it 

 certainly has not been the origin of some of them. 

 When, however, we turn from the lower animals 

 to man we can hardly find the slenderest grounds 

 for believing that habits have become hereditary. 

 Lacking directive instinct he possesses no stock 

 upon which to graft them. But he possesses 

 aptitudes : might they not be strengthened by 

 habits by the culture of civilization ? We may 

 scarcely conclude so. We see that dexterity in 

 games is as innate in Indians who have never 

 played them as in Englishmen to whom they have 

 afforded a pastime for many generations. The 

 children of quite unlettered tribes, when brought 

 to school, may display astonishing proficiency in 

 learning arithmetic. Nor does it appear that 

 habits of refinement are innately stronger in a 

 civilized than in uncivilized races. How easily 

 in the past has the light of culture been extin- 

 guished ! How rapidly have civilized nations 

 relapsed into barbarism ! A child of European 

 parentage reared in the squalor of an Indian 



