394 



MY LIFE 



[Chap. 



In an article on " The Problem of Instinct " in my 

 " Studies " (vol. i. chap, xxii.), I have supplemented the above 

 theory as to why birds migrate, by another as to how they 

 migrate, and trace it wholly to experience, the young birds 

 following the old ones ; but an enormous proportion of the 

 young fail to make the outward or the homeward journey 

 safely. 



I have given a summary of these three papers here, 

 because the views I set forth explain some of the most 

 remarkable cases of what have been termed instincts among 

 the higher animals, as being really due to instruction and 

 imitation, together with the exercise of specially acute faculties 

 of smell or sight, of memory and a moderate amount of in- 

 telligence. It is because I go farther in this direction than 

 any other writer I am acquainted with that I put this subject 

 among my " new ideas." 



In 1894 I wrote an article for the Nineteenth Century on 

 the question of the proper observance of Sunday, which I 

 have reprinted in my " Studies " under the title, " A Counsel 

 of Perfection for Sabbatarians." In this short article I define 

 clearly, I think for the first time, what the " work " so strictly 

 and impressively forbidden really is, and then show how 

 utterly inconsistent are the great majority of Sabbatarians, 

 who themselves break the commandment both in letter and 

 spirit, while they loudly condemn others for acts which are 

 not forbidden by it. I also show how the commandment can 

 be and should be strictly kept by all who believe it to be a 

 Divine command, and point out the good results which would 

 follow such a mode of obeying it. That the idea was new 

 and its reasoning unanswerable may be perhaps inferred from 

 the fact that no reply, so far as I know, was made to it ; while 

 a well-known writer was so impressed by it that he made 

 his own bed the following Sunday in accordance with its 

 suggestions. 



One other new idea of quite a different nature I will refer 

 to here, because I think that publicity may yet lead to its 



