INSTINCT AND REASON. 67 



seiiibles rational prevision, is nevertheless in real- 

 ity a purely instinctive action ; any ant-lion 

 liatched out of the egg, away from all others of 

 its kind, and allowed to follow its own inherited 

 habits undisturbed, will immediately begin to 

 construct an ant-pit on its own account, quite 

 apart from any possibility of intercourse, imita- 

 tion, or deliberate teaching. This may be re- 

 garded therefore as a good typical instance of a 

 true instinct — an inherited aptitude independent 

 of instruction or conscious experience. 



Now the question is, Do human beings possess 

 any such inherited aptitudes, any instinctive ac- 

 tivities which manifest themselves prior to all 

 teaching or knowledge of their effects ? The an- 

 swer to this question must inevitably be, Most 

 certainly they do. If we put the moutlipiece of 

 a feeding-bottle to an infant's lips a few minutes 

 after birth, the child will at once close its mouth 

 upon the tube greedily, and begin to suck with 

 all its might. This action is not rational ; the baby 

 has no knowledge of the fact that the bottle con- 

 tains milk, that milk is good for human food (es- 

 pecially in the case of the human baby), and that 

 the way to get at it is by closing the lips and tak- 

 ing a good pull at the mouthpiece. It sucks 

 purely and entirely by instinct; the impulse to 

 purse up its lips and draw in its breath is an 

 untaught ability, an inherited aptitude, a habifc 



