Translation from Von Hartmann 93 



action is supposed to be brought about by means of an 

 initial arrangement, either of bodily or mental mechanism, 

 purpose being conceived of as existing on a single occasion 

 only — that is to say, in the determination of the initial 

 arrangement. In the third, purpose is conceived as present 

 in every individual instance. Let us proceed to the 

 consideration of these three cases. 



Instinct is not a mere consequence of bodily organisation ; 

 for— 



(a.) Bodies may be alike, yet they may be endowed 

 with different instincts. 



All spiders have the same spinning apparatus, but one 

 kind weaves radiating webs, another irregular ones, while 

 a third makes none at all, but lives in holes, whose walls 

 it overspins, and whose entrance it closes with a door. 

 Almost all birds have a like organisation for the con- 

 struction of their nests (a beak and feet), but how infinitely 

 do their nests vary in appearance, mode of construction, 

 attachment to surrounding objects (they stand, are glued 

 on, hang, &c.), selection of site (caves, holes, corners, 

 forks of trees, shrubs, the ground), and excellence of 

 workmanship ; how often, too, are they not varied in the 

 species of a single genus, as of parus. Many birds, more- 

 over, build no nest at all. The difference in the songs of 

 birds are in like manner independent of the special con- 

 struction of their voice apparatus, nor do the modes of 

 nest construction that obtain among ants and bees depend 

 upon their bodily organisation. Organisation, as a general 

 rule, only renders the bird capable of singing, as giving it 

 an apparatus with which to sing at all, but it has nothing 

 to do with the specific character of the execution. . . . 

 The nursing, defence, and education of offspring cannot be 

 considered as in any way more dependent upon bodily 

 organisation ; nor yet the sites which insects choose for 

 the laying of their eggs ; nor, again, the selection of 

 deposits of spawn, of their own species, by male fish for 

 impregnation. The rabbit burrows, the hare does not, 



