92 HEREDITY AND SELECTION IN SOCIOLOGY 



falls in the centre of the wing apparatus of the butterfly which 

 is going to be developed — not too loosely, for there would then 

 be a danger of the chrysalis falling out, and not too tightly, for 

 the excessive compression might be fatal to further development. 

 There is here a succession of complicated instincts, one merging 

 into the other, and it is probable that consciousness may have 

 originally operated in establishing this succession. In the case 

 of a succession of complicated actions consciousness may be 

 admitted as a factor, although only at the origin ; for whenever 

 this complicated instinct, or, rather, series of instincts, becomes 

 fixed in the germ-plasm of the species, it passes from the con- 

 scious to the unconscious level. 



It may be objected that this contradicts what we have pre- 

 viously maintained. This, however, is not the case. What we 

 have combated is the view which regards instincts as " inherited 

 habits " — a view which, as Eibot holds, supposes the initial and 

 final stages of every instinct to be accompanied by consciousness ; 

 in a word, which declares consciousness to be the necessary 

 factor in the origin of every instinct. It is true that there is more 

 than one definition of consciousness, but Ribot has expressly 

 declared it to be a " psychic element," thereby indicating his 

 acceptance of the usual meaning. We do not deny that there are 

 numerous cases of instincts in the genesis of which consciousness 

 has played a role, and an important one — as, for, instance, in 

 complicated successions of actions, each one adapted to a definite 

 end. It is difficult to conceive of the origin of these without 

 consciousness. These instincts are to be reckoned in the cate- 

 gory which we discussed in our remarks on the Lamarckian 

 hypothesis ; they have originated in an act of conscious volition ; 

 they are voluntary acts which have become instinctive in the 

 course of generations. 



But outside of this category there are multitudinous instincts, 

 less complicated in their nature, which are completely un- 

 conscious. We have considered several of these cases, in which 



