98 Instinct and Reason. [ February, ° 
Now, for these various forms of life to effect these important 
and complicated results, there must needs be some power behind 
all capable of directing the phenomena manifested in each indi- 
vidual. The selection of the required food, the choice of a 
habitat, and the end of all—the ultimate propagation of its kind— 
are by no means mechanical phenomena. 
The general opinion has hitherto been, that man was guided 
by intelligence or reason, and the lower animals, without excep- 
tion, by instinct, differing most essentially from reason in that it 
was innate. Gradually, however, many of the actions of the 
lower animals, as well as some of man which were regarded as 
instinctive, were acknowledged to be intelligent. These actions 
were supposed to be the same in kind, but different in degree. A 
step was thus made in advance; and what could not be longer 
denied forced itself upon the attention of all. 
It is a matter of peculiar difficulty to draw a line of distinction 
between instinct and reason. The best thinkers, among whom 
may be cited Herbert Spencer, consider that no /zatus exists 
between the two, but that the one passes into the other by insen- 
sible degrees. 
Simple reflex action, sometimes called “reflex action of the 
spinal cord,” is wholly unconscious action. It is Aas action of vee 
cles seen in decapitated frogs, and in acer t 
who, in their short life, perform simple acts as readily as babes 
with brain intact. Herbert Spencer supposes the simplest acts to 
be unconscious, performed by the animal automatically, in its 
endeavor to get rid of offending matters. And this acquired 
power is inherited and becomes then instinct, or complex reflex 
action of another sort.’ Instinct is the inheritance of accumu- 
lated experience ; is also a lower grade of intelligence, into the 
highest of which it gradually develops. The dog after having 
been taught the trick of “begging” will transmit that faculty to 
its offspring, which will be used as occasion requires.? Mr. Lewes 
and Mr. Spencer appear to agree in regarding instinct as being 
lower than reason. Acts which were once voluntary and intelli- 
gent may become involuntary and habitual, then instinctive. 
And as acts became more complex they become less frequent, and 
more subject to the control of the will. Hence instinct is “lapsed 
intelligence,” so to speak. 
1 Psychology, Vol. i, p. 432 and foll. 
2 Problems of Life and Mind, bt i, p. 208 and foll. 
