138 Habit and Instinct. 



former, being, it would seem, the more deeply ingrained in 

 the mental nature, lying far nearer to automatism than the 

 latter, the deliberate act. And many of us have often a hard 

 struggle to hold in check, by the exercise of our better 

 judgment, the impulsive tendencies which are natural to us 

 through inheritance or the force of acquired habit. A 

 heightened emotional state, such as that of anger or fear, 

 desire or irritability, is often a predisposing condition to 

 impulsive action. The dipsomaniac experiences recurrent 

 periods when his whole being seems to crave for that which 

 he knows is ruining him body and soul. He passes the 

 open door of a public-house where he sees a man raising a 

 glass to his lips ; the added stimulus in this critical state 

 is too much for him. He yields to the impulse, calls for 

 brandy, and gulps it down. Given a state of craving or 

 emotional excitability ; given an opportunity for its satis- 

 faction ; the impulse, I take it, is the immediate 

 accompaniment of the organic conditions of the moment ; 

 when the organic tension accompanied by the somewhat 

 indefinite states of consciousness we term, according to its 

 intensity, a need, want, or craving, is reinforced by a 

 definite stimulus prompting to its immediate satisfaction. 

 Now the impulse, if this brief sketch of its nature be 

 correct in outline, is essentially an internal state which 

 prompts us to the performance of certain actions. It is 

 the antecedent on which the actions themselves are con- 

 sequent. The performance of the action — such as the blow 

 struck by an angry man — is not to be regarded as the 

 cause, but as the result of the impulse. And in us the 

 term impulse is applied to the psychological condition of 

 the moment ; it is a state of consciousness. But it is one 

 that has certain organic accompaniments, and is the 

 outcome of physiological conditions. And since, in a 

 consideration of instinctive behaviour, the psychological 



