214 DARWINISM AND THE PROBLEMS OF LIFE 



There is still one province in which the Lamarckists 

 think their principle is indispensable ; this is the province 

 of instincts. It is said that we cannot understand these 

 except as inherited habits. 



We saw above that instincts are grounded on com- 

 plicated reflex actions. It is just as difficult, moreover, 

 to put limits between instincts and voluntary actions as 

 it is between reflex actions and instincts. It is certain 

 that actions which were at first voluntary and have 

 often been repeated become at last instinctive. There 

 is the pianist, for instance, who practises a piece 

 consciously and with an effort of will. In the end 

 he will play the piece quite instinctively, often while he 

 is thinking of other things altogether. With many 

 people it is entirely instinctive to take out their watch at 

 night, or to clean their teeth — in fact, to perform a large 

 number of actions which were at first controlled by the 

 will. That voluntary actions may become instinctive by 

 frequent repetition is as certain as that organs become 

 stronger by exercise. 



Hugo von Buttel-Reepen, the leading authority on bees, has shown 

 at length how we may conceive the origin of the bee-state by selection. 

 At first there were a few living females, which laid their eggs in 

 sheltered hollows and provided them with food, as many wasps still do. 

 Then those females were selected that remained with the eggs and 

 watched them until the young issued. The next point was that the 

 first females to come from the eggs took a part in the watching of the 

 rest of the eggs and larvae. After this there was a more and more 

 complete division of labour, in virtue of which the older female was 

 turned exclusively into an egg-laying machine, and the others worked 

 for the community. The great advantage of the state is that, even if 

 numbers of the feeders of the swarm are destroyed, there is always a 

 sufificient number left to supply its needs. The limits of the present 

 work unfortunately forbid me to enlarge further on this interesting 

 subject. 



