6046 



Reason and Instinct. 



individual of the lower orders of animal creation, — to whatever ex- 

 tent they are discernible, whether simply so or to a high degrees- 

 there, and to that extent, I believe, and I express my belief, that Reason, 

 be it what it may in man, exists in the brute : and, in like manner, if 

 I can succeed in distinguishing and defining what are the marks of 

 Instinct, the signs and tokens of its presence and operation, without 

 any attempt at a metaphysical determination of what that essence or 

 quality really is, and without running the risk — w^hich I very likely 

 should run if I made the attempt — of making words my masters in- 

 stead of my servants, I think I am in a position for carrying on an 

 inquiry which depends, in no very perceptible degree, upon anything 

 but observed phenomena and logical reasoning upon such phe- 

 nomena. 



Before I proceed further, I may as well at once admit the justice 

 of Mr. Tagart's criticism on the expression " Instincts peculiar to 

 man," and on the use of the word Instinct in the plural ; so far, that 

 is, as such use " implies that there are many different kinds of in- 

 stinct." The expression was employed inadvertently, and overlooked 

 in revision. What I meant and what I ought to have said was, " the 

 instincts in which man is a participant; " and it would doubtless have 

 been more correct — and, possibly, more pedantic as well — to have 

 said, all through, " an operation of Instinct" instead of an instinct," 

 and ''operations of Instinct" instead of '^instincts," how^ever much 

 ordinary use may seem to excuse, or even to require, such want of 

 precision. Perhaps, after this admission, I may be allowed to ask 

 how came Mr. Tagart, who assumes to be "a logician and metaphy- 

 sician," when he flings his stone at my window and breaks his pane, 

 to forget the vitreous composition of his own domicile so far as to 

 confound ''elements" and *' operations" ? (Zool. 5742). Surely these 

 are not synonymous or convertible terms ; at least I, w^ho do n't set 

 up as logician and metaphysician, did not use them as such ; on the 

 contrary, I always thought they stood for things, or represented ideas, 

 very essentially distinct and different. Methinks it would sound 

 strange to talk of hydrogen and oxygen as the "operations" of 

 water, or of a thorough good drenching as being the " element " of a 

 sufficiency of that fluid properly applied. I might gratify the love of 

 mischief, which is a sort of *' instinct" in so many of us, by another 

 "shy" or two at Mr. Tagart's "house," and chuckle as I heard the 

 smash ensuing; but I w^ould fain turn to something, less amusing it 

 may be, but at the same time, I would hope, less unprofitable. 



I am quite aware that there is a difficulty in the application of the 



