96 Unconscious Memory 



grew smaller and smaller, till, when she had laid her twenty- 

 ninth egg, she was found dead upon her nest. If an instinct 

 cannot stand the test of self-sacrifice — ^if it is the simple 

 outcome of a desire for bodily gratification — then it is no 

 true instinct, and is only so called erroneously. 



Instinct is not a mechanism of brain or mind implanted 

 in living beings by nature ; for, if it were, then instinctive 

 action without any, even unconscious, activity of mind, 

 and with no conception concerning the purpose of the 

 action, would be executed mechanically, the purpose 

 having been once for all thought out by Nature or Provi- 

 dence, which has so organised the individual that it acts 

 henceforth as a purely mechanical medium. We are now 

 dealing with a psychical organisation as the cause of 

 instinct, as we were above dealing with a physical. A 

 psychical organisation would be a conceivable explanation, 

 and we need look no farther if every instinct once belonging 

 to an animal discharged its functions in an unvarying 

 manner. But this is never found to be the case, for all 

 instincts vary when there arises a sufficient motive for 

 varying them. This proves that special exterior circum- 

 stances enter into the matter, and that these circumstances 

 are the very things that render the attainment of the 

 purpose possible through means selected by the instinct. 

 Here first do we find instinct acting as though it were 

 actually design with action following at its heels, for, 

 until the arrival of the motive, the instinct remains latent 

 and discharges no function whatever. The motive enters 

 by way of an idea received into the mind through the in- 

 strumentality of the senses, and there is a constant connec- 

 tion between instinct in action and all sensual images 

 which give information that an opportunity has arisen 

 for attaining the ends proposed to itself by the instinct. 



The psychical mechanism of tliis constant connection 

 must also be looked for. It may help us here to turn 

 to the piano for an illustration. The struck keys are the 

 motives, the notes that sound in consequence are the 



