138 HUMBLE CREATURES. 



is wholly dependent upon the appetites or natural 

 wants*. 



Let Tis quote a familiar example of this blind, 

 unconscious, mechanical instinct, illustrative of the 

 lowest psychical phase of which we can well form a 

 conception. 



You have doubtless seen the common Sea- anemone 

 or Actinia, adhering to the rocks at low-water. If 

 you go and watch this creature when it is covered hy 

 the tide, or (if that be impracticable) in the aquarium 

 of a friend, you will perceive it from time to time 

 extend its tentacles to their fiiU extent ia search of 

 food. Presently a little shrimp or other living crea- 

 ture comes iu contact with these tentacles, and at 

 once it is seized and conveyed into the capacious 

 stomach ; indeed the creature itself is little else than 

 a stomach endowed with the capability of feeding 

 itself, and possessing limited powers of locomotion. 

 As soon as it has obtained a sufficient amount of 

 nourishment, and has satisfied the cravings of ap- 

 petite, it shrinks up into a jelly-like shapeless mass, 

 resembling an excrescence growing upon the rocks ; 

 and any living creature, however tempting a morsel 

 it might otherwise be, may then approach or im- 

 pinge upon it without danger of falling a prey to its 

 voracity. 



* If the term "instinct" were limited to such a mental 

 quality as is here described, then the theory of " sensation " 

 (see page 119) woiild perhaps constitute the most appropriate 

 definition that could he applied. 



