4 
ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. 33 
that I am tempted to wind up this vaguely speculative paper 
by quoting a few sentences from his ‘‘ Memoires Entomo- 
logiques *’ :— 
‘* Facts speak so loudly that I do not hesitate to translate 
their evidence as I understand it. In msect mentality we have 
to distinguish two very different domains. One of these is 
instinct properly so-called, the unconscious impulse that pre- 
sides over the most wonderful part of what the creature 
achieves. . . ._ It is instinct alone that makes the mother 
build for a family which she will never see; that counsels the 
storing of provisions for the unknown offspring; that directs 
the sting towards the nerve-centres of the prey and skilfully 
paralyses it, so that the game may keep fresh; that instigates, 
in fine, a host of actions wherein shrewd reason and consum- 
mate science would have their part, were the creature acting 
through discernment. This faculty is perfect of its kind from 
the outset, otherwise the insect would have no posterity. 
It is not free nor conscious in its practice any more than is the 
faculty of the stomach for digestion or that of the heart for 
pulsation. . . . But pure instinct, if it stood alone, would 
leave the insect unarmed in the perpetual conflict of circum- 
stance. No two moments in time are identical; though the 
background remains the same, the details change; the unex- 
pected rises on every side. In this bewildering confusion, a 
guide is needed to seek, accept, refuse, and select. . . This 
guide the insect undoubtedly possesses to a very manifest 
degree. It is the second province of its mentality. Here it 
is conscious and capable of improvement by experience. | 
dare not speak of this rudimentary faculty as_ intelligence, 
which is too exalted a title. I will call it discernment. : 
So long as we confound acts of pure instinct and acts of dis- 
cernment under the same head we shall fall back into those 
endless discussions which embitter controversy without 
bringing us one step nearer the solution of the problem. Is 
the insect conscious of what it does? Yes and no. No, if 
its action is in the province of instinct; yes, if the action is in 
that of discernment.’’!® 
12 Bramble Bees and Others, by J. Henri Fabre, translated by 
A. Texeira de Mattos. 1915. 
