138 ORGANIC EVOLUTION — MENTAL 



Highest in the scale, and notably in man, occurs that 

 kind of response to stimulation which is known as 

 Meason, and which may be defined as " the faculty which 

 is concerned in the conscious adaption of means to ends," 

 hy virtue of acquired non-inherited knowledge and^ ways 

 of thinking and acting. Though powers of acquiring 

 reason are transmissible, reason itself is obviously never 

 transmitted. 



I am aware that the above definitions of instinct and 

 reason are very different from those ordinarily accepted, 

 but I think it will be found on consideration that they 

 are more accurate, that they more completely include 

 within their limits all cases of instinct and reason 

 respectively, and that they more clearly separate that 

 which is instinctive from that which is rational than any 

 other definition as yet advanced. Professor Romanes, 

 ' for example, defines reason as — 



" The faculty which is concerned in the conscious 

 adaption of means to ends. It therefore implies the 

 conscious knowledge of the relation between means 

 employed and ends attained, and may be exercised in 

 adaption to circumstances novel alike to the experience 

 of the individual and to that of the species." — Mental 

 Evolution, p. 318. 



But it appears to me that reason so defined includes 

 nearly all those actions which we commonly term instinc- 

 tive. For instance, by what term shall we designate the 

 action of the spider when he builds his web? Does 

 the animal not know for what purpose he constructs it ? 

 Was there ever a web building in which there were not 

 "circumstances novel alike to the experience of the 

 individual and to that of the species " ? Or, when he 

 runs along a thread to capture his prey, or cuts loose a 

 dangerous captive, does he not consciously adapt means 



