Translation from Von Hartmann 95 



The reason for the special mode of the activity is the very 

 problem that we have to solve. No one will call the action 

 of the spider instinctive in voiding the fluid from her 

 spinning gland when it is too full, and therefore painful to 

 her ; nor that of the male fish when it does what amounts 

 to much the same thing as this. The instinct and the 

 marvel lie in the fact that the spider spins threads, and 

 proceeds to weave her web with them, and that the male 

 fish will only impregnate ova of his own species. 



Another proof that the pleasure felt in the employment 

 of an organ is wholly inadequate to account for this em- 

 ployment is to be found in the fact that the moral greatness 

 of instinct, the point in respect of which it most commands 

 our admiration, consists in the obedience paid to its 

 behests, to the postponement of all personal well-being, 

 and at the cost, it may be, of life itself. If the mere pleasure 

 of relieving certain glands from overfulness were the 

 reason why caterpillars generally spin webs, they would 

 go on spinning until they had relieved these glands, but 

 they would not repair their work as often as any one 

 destroyed it, and do this again and again until they die of 

 exhaustion. The same holds good with the other instincts 

 that at first sight appear to be inspired only by a sensation 

 of pleasure ; for if we change the circumstances, so as to 

 put self-sacrifice in the place of self-interest, it becomes at 

 once apparent that they have a higher source than this. 

 We think, for example, that birds pair for the sake of mere 

 sexual gratification ; why, then, do they leave off pairing 

 as soon as they have laid the requisite number of eggs ? 

 That there is a reproductive instinct over and above the 

 desire for sexual gratification appears from the fact that 

 if a man takes an egg out of the nest, the birds will come 

 together again and the hen will lay another egg ; or, if 

 they belong to some of the more wary species, they will 

 desert their nest, and make preparation for an entirely new 

 brood. A female wryneck, whose nest was daily robbed 

 of the egg she laid in it, continued to lay a new one, which 



