230 CULTURE 



reason is a dangerous guide. By arguments 

 which accurate observation would have discre- 

 dited it has induced men to mutilate their bodies 

 by such practises as circumcision and foot- 

 binding, to kill their new-born children, their 

 aged parents, and to make unprovoked and 

 objectless wars upon their fellow men. Led by 

 directive instinct, the lower animals make no 

 such futile mistakes : if instinct has contrived 

 the hereditary mutilation of worker bees by the 

 loss of their sex, it has certainly benefited the hive 

 by their concentrated industry. 



Man's extraordinary progress may in great mea- 

 sure be ascribed to a weakening of directive 

 instinct which has compelled him to rely upon 

 his reasoning capacity. The faculty of reason is 

 no monopoly of mankind's : we can detect its 

 working very far down the animal kingdom. But 

 when subjected to the rivalry of directive instinct 

 it is out-distanced by the straighter running of its 

 competitor. So, in the case of the lower animals, 

 instinct generally makes good its claim to leader- 

 ship, and we may observe its influence in a uni- 

 formity of conduct amongst the individuals, or 

 communities, that belong to the same species. 

 One troop of monkeys in an Indian jungle pre- 

 cisely resembles another in its manners and 

 habits. But the castes of an Indian village are 

 sharply distinguished by peculiarities of behaviour. 

 Man has gained incalculably in liberty of action 

 by the loss of a tyrannical faculty, which, however 

 safe a guide, tolerates no wandering on the part 

 of its followers. 



What is discovered by reason is recorded by 

 memory, and since the records of memory do not 

 become hereditarily imprinted upon the mind, 

 each generation would start from the commence- 

 ment of the track were it not equipped, by means 



