INSTINCT AND REASON. 683 
stinctively, and that they were not suddenly or specially 
endowed with instincts. 
Rey. J. J. Murphy, in his work entitled ‘‘ Habit and In- 
telligence,”’ seems to regard instinct as the sum of inherited 
habits, remarking that “‘ reason differs from instinct only 
in being conscious. Instinct is unconscious reason, and 
reason is conscious instinct.”? This seems equivalent to 
saying that most of the instincts of the present generation 
of animals is unconscious automatism, but that in the begin- 
ning, in the ancestors of the present races, instincts were 
more plastic than now, such traits as were useful to the or- 
ganism being preserved and crystallized, as it were, into the 
instinctive acts of their lives. This does not exclude the 
idea that animals, while in most respects automata, occa- 
sionally perform acts which transcend instinct ; that they 
are still modified by circumstances, especially those species 
which in any way come in contact with man ; are still in a de- 
gree free agents, and have unconsciously learned, by success 
or failure, to adapt themselves to new surroundings. This 
view is strengthened by the fact that there is a marked de- 
gree of individuality among animals. Some individuals of 
the same species are much more intelligent than others, 
they act as leaders in different operations. Among dogs, 
horses, and other domestic animals, those of dull intellect 
are led or excelled by those of greater intelligence, and this 
indicates that they are not simpiy automata, but are also in 
a degree, or within their own sphere, free agents. 
LITERATURE. 
Romanes. Animal Intelligence. 1883.—Mental Evolution in Ani- 
mals. 1884. 
Bastian. The Brain as an Organ of Mind. 1880, 
James. Psychology, Chapter XXIV. 1890. : 
See also the works of Darwin. 
