INSTINCT. 403 



SPECIAL HUMAN INSTINCTS. 



Let US now test our principles by turning to human 

 instincts in more detail. We cannot pretend in these pages 

 to be minute or exhaustive. But we can say enough to set 

 all the above generalities in a more favorable light. But 

 first, what kind of motor reactions upon objects shall we 

 count as instincts? This, as aforesaid, is a somewhat 

 arbitrary matter. Some of the actions aroused in us by 

 objects go no further than our own bodies. Such is the 

 bristling up of the attention when a novel object is per- 

 ceived, or the ' expression ' on the face or the breathing 

 apparatus of an emotion it may excite. These movements 

 merge into ordinary reflex actions like laughing when 

 tickled, or making a wry face at a bad taste. Other actions 

 take efiect upon the outer world. Such are flight from a 

 wild beast, imitation of what we see a comrade do, etc. On 

 the whole it is best to be catholic, since it is very hard to 

 draw an exact line ; and call both of these kinds of activity 

 instinctive, so far as either may be naturally provoked by 

 the presence of specific sorts of outward fact. 



Professor Preyer, in his careful little work, ' Die Seele 

 des Kindes,' says " instinctive acts are in man few in 

 number, and, apart from those connected with the sexual 

 passion, difficult to recognize after early youth is past." 

 And he adds, " so much the more attention should we pay 

 to the instinctive movements of new-born babies, suck- 

 lings, and small children." That instinctive acts should be 

 easiest recognized in childhood would be a very natural 

 effect of our principles of transitoriness, and of the restric- 

 tive influence of habits once acquired ; but we shall see how 

 far they are from being ' few in number ' in man. Professor 

 Preyer divides the movements of infants into impulsive, 

 reflex, and instinctive. By impulsive movements he means 

 random movements of limbs, body, and voice, with no aim, 

 and before perception is aroused. Among the first reflex 

 movements are crying on contact with the air, sneezing, 

 snuffling, snoring, coughing, sighing, sobbing, gagging, vomiting, 

 hiccuping, starting, moving the limbs ivhen tickled, touched, or 

 blotvn upon, etc., etc. 



