6054 



Reason and Instinct. 



by the chord of the arc, and without a hesitation or a deviation ; and 

 moreover I believe that in his case ''it is" not " the peculiarity of 

 man not only to be conscious of the ends which he pursues and of the 

 methods by which he attains them, but to be able as well to give an 

 account of these ends and means, so as to instruct his felloivsy (Zool. 

 5743.) It is said that he can give no explanation of the remarkable power 

 of self-guidance he so unquestionably possesses. And it may be added, 

 multitudes of instances, more or less analogous to this, from the habits 

 and peculiarities of the Australian natives and other uncivilized or 

 savage races, might be adduced. Will any one hesitate in affirming 

 that Instinct — simple untutored Instinct — is the motive power and 

 influential cause in all such cases as the one alleged ? 



The instances which have been thus brought forward are instances 

 of pure, simple Instinct, as operative in the human species; two of 

 them illustrated in the experience of, it may be said, every individual 

 in the species, the third only confined to the experience of the savage. 

 And besides, it would be easy to adduce other instances, to almost 

 any extent, as to which it would be very difficult to make good a 

 negative to the question. Are not all these actions due originally to 

 Instinct, however much that Instinct may have been restrained, di- 

 rected, overruled, in its operation by Reason ? and this, too, quite 

 independently of all those many actions in every human creature's 

 daily career of doing, which may be ascribed to what Mr. Couch 

 describes as unconscious irritability ; such, for instance, as the invo- 

 luntary closing of the eye-lid at the sudden approach to the eye of 

 any material object, and the like:* but the production of such in- 

 stances is quite unnecessary for our purpose. Quite enough has been 

 said to justify w^hat my critic " objects to," viz, the application of 

 the term Instinct to man;" and, moreover, I shall have to revert to 

 the subject in a future portion of the present paper. 



J. C. Atkinson. 



Danby Parsonage, Grosmoiit, York, 

 March, 1858. 



* Dr. Carpenter terms sucli actions Consensual. 



