Reason and Instinct. 



6199 



most accurate and widest possible observation, which we have endea- 

 voured to do when attempting to establish our first position ; next, to 

 deduce a similar law as to the comparative presence and influence of 

 Instinct in men living in communities that are, and have been for a 

 lengthened period, more or less highly civilized ; and then, by con- 

 trasting these two rules, and checking the result by comparing it with 

 the observed psychical condition and peculiarities of such partially 

 or imperfectly civilized peoples as are reasonably believed to have 

 been at some anterior period of their history in a savage or nearly 

 savage condition, to deduce thence the presumable law as to the pre- 

 sence and influence of Instinct in communities passing through the 

 process of emergence from barbarism to at least comparative civiliza- 

 tion. And if, besides, we are enabled to adduce such instances as 

 that of the New Zealanders, already adverted to, and, after trj^ing our 

 presumed law by them, find it enunciates principles in no way incon- 

 sistent with the observed phenomena, we have so far a confirmation 

 of its truth and validity. 



What, then, is the law of Instinct as applicable to man living in a 

 condition, almost all the elements of which are in a greater or less 

 degree referrible to or influenced by civilization ; say, to the inhabi- 

 tants or frequenters of the very centres of civilization in England, 

 France or Germany ? 



We find the instinct of Fear or Self-preservation so limited and so 

 modified that there is very little analogy or opportunity for compari- 

 son between the actions of the savage man or the wild beast under 

 this influence, and those of civilized man under the influence of what 

 we usually understand by the word Fear. Exact parallel between 

 the proceedings or expedients of the savage when seeking to elude 

 his enemies or escape danger, and any of the actions of an ordinary 

 member of civilized society, there is none. As to what we have 

 termed the instinct of Sexual Love, it exists past all doubt, but under 

 circumstances which, except in some, by comparison, few cases, 

 either anticipate its actual development or true influence, or else, 

 from the careful restraint or repression to which they cause it to be 

 subjected, eflfectually forbid alike its real operation or any evidence of 

 its existence. The instinctive influence of Association certainly 

 exists, and perhaps at least to the full as strongly as in any uncivi- 

 lized community. The eager craving of our childhood, new every 

 day, for companions of our own age ; our gratification when the 

 craving is supplied ; the fervid friendships of our school-days ; the 

 habits of our maturer years, with the continuous interchange of 



