386 PSTCEOLOGT. 



to strip it ; it lies in its nature to feel, as soon as its cheek-pouches are 

 filled, an irresistible desire to hurry to its home ; and finally, it lies in 

 its nature that the sight of the storehouse should awaken the impulse 

 to empty the cheeks" (p. 208). 



In certain animals of a low order the feeling of havingr 

 executed one impulsive step is such an indispensable part 

 of the stimulus of the next one, that the animal cannot 

 make any variation in the order of its performance. 



Noiv, 2ohy do the various animals do ivhat seem to us such 

 strange things, in the presence of such outlandish stimuli ? 

 Why does the hen, for example, submit herself to the 

 tedium of incubating such a fearfully uninteresting set of 

 objects as a nestful of eggs, unless she have some sort of a 

 prophetic inkling of the result? The only answer is ad 

 hominem. We can only interpret the instincts of brutes by 

 what we know of instincts in ourselves. Why do men al- 

 ways lie down, when they can, on soft beds rather than on 

 hard floors? Why do they sit round the stove on a cold 

 day? Why, in a room, do they place themselves, ninety- 

 nine times out of a hundred, with their faces towards its 

 middle rather than to the wall ? Why do they prefer saddle 

 of mutton and champagne to hard-tack and ditch-water ? 

 Why does the maiden interest the youth so that everything 

 about her seems more important and significant than any- 

 thing else in the world ? Nothing more can be said than 

 that these are human ways, and that every creature Wees its 

 own ways, and takes to the following them as a matter of 

 course. Science may come and consider these ways, and 

 find that most of them are useful. But it is not for the 

 sake of their utility that they are followed, but because at 

 the moment of following them we feel that that is the only 

 appropriate and natural thing to do. Not one man in a 

 billion, when taking his dinner, ever thinks of utility. He 

 eats because the food tastes good and makes him want 

 more. If you ask him ivhy he should want to eat more of 

 what tastes like that, instead of revering you as a philoso- 

 pher he will probably laugh at you for a fool. The con- 

 nection between the savory sensation and the act it awakens 

 is for him absolute and selbstverstdndJich, an ' a priori syn- 



