instinct 
cations of instinct might be profitable to a species ; and if 
it can be shown that instincts do vary ever so little, then 
I can see no difficulty in natural selection preserving and 
continually accumulating variations of instinct to any ex- 
tent that was profitable. It is thus, as I believe, that all the 
most complex and wonderful instincts have originated. 
Darwin, Origin of Species (1889), p. 187. 
Instinct is purposive action without consciousness of 
the purpose. . . . The end to which a definite kind of in- 
stinctive action is subservient is not conceived once for 
all by a mind standing outside the individual like a provi- 
dence, and the necessity to act conformably thereto ex- 
ternally thrust upon the individual as something foreign 
to him ; but the end of the instinct is in each single case 
unconsciously willed and imagined by the individual, and 
the choice of means suitable to each special case uncon- 
sciously made. 
E. von Hartmann, Philosophy of the Unconscious, tr. by 
[Coupland, A. iii. 
Every animal that has well-developed eyes presents an 
instance of the adaptation of means to purpose by uncon- 
scious formative intelligence, which is quite as definite as 
that shown in any motor instinct, and far more delicate 
and subtle. Murphy, Habit and Intelligence, xxvii. 
All instincts probably arose in one or other of two ways. 
(1) By the effects of habit in successive generations, men- 
tal activities which were originally intelligent become, as 
it were, stereotyped into permanent instincts. ... (2) 
The other mode of origin consists in natural selection, or 
survival of the fittest, continuously preserving actions 
which, although never intelligent, yet happen to have 
been of benefit. Romanes, Encyc. Brit, XIII. 157. 
2. Natural intuitive power; innate power of 
perception or intuition. 
They [poets] came by Instinct diuine, and by deepe med- 
itation, and much abstinence (the same assubtiling and 
refining their spirits), to be made apt to receaue visions. 
Puttenhatn, Arte of Eng. Poesie, p. 4. 
Willingly would I now have gone and asked Mrs. Eeed's 
pardon ; but I knew, partly from experience and partly 
from instinct, that wa. the way to make her repulse me 
with double scorn. Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre, iv. 
The truth was felt by instinct here 
Process which saves a world of trouble and time. 
Browning, Ring and Book, I. 182. 
instinctiont (in-stingk'shon), n. [< OF. in- 
stinctio(n-), < L. as if *i/is'iinctio(n-), < instin- 
guere, pp. instinctus, impel: see instinct.'] 1. 
Instinct. 2. Instigation; inspiration. 
Tnlli in his Tnsculane questions supposeth that a poete 
can not abundantly expresse verses surnciente and com- 
plete, or that his eloquence may flowe without labour, 
wordes well sounyng and plentuouse, without celestial iii- 
stinction. Sir T. Elyot, The Governour, i. 13. 
instinctive (in-stingk'tiv), a. [< instinct + -ive.'] 
Prompted by or of the nature of instinct. 
Raised 
By quick instinctive motion, up I sprung. 
Milton, P. L., viii. 269. 
An action which we ourselves should require experience 
to enable us to perform, when performed by an animal, 
more especially by a very young one, without any expe- 
rience, and when performed by many individuals in the 
same way, without their knowing for what purpose it is 
performed, is usually said to be instinctive. 
Daririn, Origin of Species, p. 201. 
A sceptre once put in the hand, the grip is instinctive. 
Lowell, Among my Books, 1st ser., p. 232. 
Whether young children have an instinctive dread of 
the dark might of course be determined by a careful col- 
lection of testimony. 
J. Sully, Sensation and Intuition, p. 13. 
instinctively (in-stingk'tiv-li), adv. In an in- 
stinctive manner; by force of instinct. 
They prepar'd 
A rotten carcase of a boat, not rigg'd, 
Nor tackle, sail, nor mast; the very rats 
Instinctively have quit it. 
Shak., Tempest, i. 2, 148. 
We instinctively demand that everything in God's plan 
shall stand in the strict unity of reason. 
Bushnett, Nature and the Supernal., p. 261. 
instinctivity (in-stingk-tiv'i-ti), n. [< instinc- 
tive + -ity.~\ The character of being instinctive 
or prompted by instinct. [Rare.] 
There is growth only in plants ; but there is irritability, 
or a better word instinctivity, in insects. Coleridge. 
instipulate (in-stip'u-lat), a. [< i-3 + stipu- 
late.] In bot., having no stipules: same as ex- 
stipulate. 
institorial (in-sti-to'ri-al), . [< L. institorius, 
< institor, an agent, factor, broker, huckster, 
< insistere, pp. institus, stand upon, follow, pur- 
sue : see insist.] In law, pertaining to an agent 
or factor Institorial action, an action allowed in 
Roman law against the principal upon contracts of those 
whom he employed as managers or superintendents of a 
farm or any other particular branch of business. 
institute (in'sti-tut), v. t. ; pret. and pp. insti- 
tuted, ppr. instituting. [< L. institutus, pp. of 
instltuere (> It. instituire, istituire = Sp. Pg. 
inttituir = F. instituer), set up, place or set 
upon, purpose, begin, institute, < in, in, on, + 
statuere, set up, establish: see statute. Cf. 
constitute.'] 1. To set up; establish; put into 
form and operation; set afoot: as, to institute 
laws, rules, or regulations ; to institute a gov- 
3124 
ernment or a court ; to institute a suit or an in- 
vestigation. 
The last particular in the fable is the Games of the 
torch, instituted to Prometheus. 
Bacon, Physical Fables, ii., Expl. 
Here let us breathe, and haply institute 
A course of learning. Shak., T. of the S., i. 1, 8. 
The monastic and hermit's life was instituted here in 
the fourth century by St. Saba ; they say, there have been 
ten thousand recluses here at one time. 
Pococke, Description of the East, II. i. 34. 
2. To establish in an office ; appoint; in eccle- 
siastical use, to assign to a spiritual charge ; in- 
vest with the cure of souls : used absolutely, or 
followed by to or into. 
When Timothy was instituted into that office [to preach 
the word of God], then was the credit and trust of this 
duty committed unto his faithful care. 
Hooker, Eccles. Polity, iii. 11. 
Cousin of York, we institute your grace 
To be our regent in these parts of France. 
Shak., 1 Hen. VI., iv. 1, 162. 
A Rev. Alexander Pope was instituted to the living of 
Thruxton, Hants, Jan. 5, 1630. N . and Q. , 6th ser., IX. 374. 
3f. To ground or establish in principles ; edu- 
cate; instruct. 
A painfull School-master, that hath in hand 
To institute the flowr of all a Land, 
Glues longest Lessons vnto those where Heav'n 
The ablest wits and aptest wills hath giv'n. 
Sylvester, tr. of Du Bartas's Weeks, i. 7. 
They have but few laws. For to people to instruct and 
institute very few do suffice. 
Sir T. More, Utopia (tr. by Robinson), ii. 9. 
Instituted Sign, in logic, a sign which is not natural, 
but established^ either by human convention (as a clock- 
bell to strike the hours) or by divine ordinance, as a sac- 
rament, which is a visible sign of an invisible grace, ac- 
cording to St. Augustine. = Syn. 1. To ordain, settle, fix, 
set in motion. 
institutet, a. [ME. institut; < L. institute, pp. : 
see the verb.] Instituted ; established. 
When this newe parsoun is institut in his churche, 
He bithenketh him hu he may shrewedlichest worche. 
Political Songs (ed. Wright), p. 326. 
institute (in'sti-tut), M. [= D. instituut = G. 
Dan. Sw. institut, < F. institut = Pr. istitut = 
Sp. Pg. institute It. instituto, istituto, < L. iii- 
stitutum, a purpose, design, regulation, ordi- 
nance, instruction, etc., prop. neut. of institu- 
tus, pp. of instituere, set up, institute : see in- 
stitute, .] 1. An established principle, rule, or 
law ; a settled order. 
Water sanctified by Christ's institute, [was] thought lit- 
tle enough to wash off the original spot. 
Milton, Reformation in Eng., i. 
We profess ourselves servants of so meek a Master, and 
disciples of so charitable an institute. 
Jer. Taylor, Works (ed. 1836), II. 293. 
Greek institutes require 
The nearest kindred on the fun'ral stage 
The dead to lay. Olover, Athenaid, xxvi. 
2. pi. A collection of established laws, rules, 
or principles; a book of elements, especially in 
jurisprudence : as, the Institutes of Justinian; 
Erskine's "Institutes of the Law of Scotland"; 
Calvin's "Institutes of the Christian Religion." 
The word implies a systematic statement of the law or of 
the principles of the subject treated, in analytic form, in a 
single and complete work, as distinguished from a mere 
compilation or collection, and from a commentary ; but it 
does not necessarily imply that it is established by any 
formal authority. 
3. An established body of persons ; an insti- 
tution ; a society or association organized for 
some specific work, especially of a literary or 
scientific character : as, a philosophic or edu- 
cational institute; a mechanics' institute; the 
Institute of Civil Engineers; the National In- 
stitute of France, or specifically the Institute 
(see below). 
The title of Member of the Institute is the highest dis- 
tinction to which a Frenchman of culture can aspire ; it is 
the crowning honor of his career. 
Harper's Slag., LXXVIII. 601. 
4. In Scots law, the person to whom the estate 
is first given in a destination. Thus, where a per- 
son executing a settlement dispones his lands to A, whom 
failing, to B, whom failing, to C, etc., A is termed the in- 
stitute, and all who follow him in the succession are heirs, 
or substitutes, as they are also termed. Institute Of 
France, an organization formed in 1795 to bring into one 
body the previously existing national academies, and call- 
ed at first the National Institute. It was at first divided 
into three and afterward four classes. It underwent vari- 
ous modifications, and, as finally constituted in 1832, con- 
sists of the five great academies. See academy, 3. In- 
stitute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a Roman Catho- 
lic order of women, founded by Mary Ward in England in 
1611. It is thought to be the only Roman Catholic order 
of English origin since the Reformation. Also called Eng- 
lish Ladies and English Virgins. Institutes Of Justin- 
ian, an elementary work on Roman law composed in the 
reign of the Emperor Justinian (who reigned 527 -G5), and 
forming part of the Corpus Juris Civilis. Institutes of 
medicine, a name for the more scientific parts of medical 
teaching. Teachers' institute, in the system of common 
institution 
schools in the United States, an assembly of teachers of 
elementary or district schools, convened by a county su- 
perintendent or other school authority, to receive or give 
normal instruction. The work consists of a brief course 
of class exercises, lectures, and examinations. 
institute! (iu'sti-tu-ter), H. [< institute, v., + 
-erl. Cf. institiitor.] See institutor. 
institution (in-sti-tu'shon), n, [< ME. institu- 
don, < OF. (and F.) institution = Pr. institutio, 
istitutio = Sp. institucion = Pg. instituigao = It. 
institusione, istituzione, < L. institutio(n-'), < insti- 
tuere, pp. institutus, set up : see institute, .] 1. 
The act of instituting or setting up ; establish- 
ment; effective ordination: as, the institution 
of laws or government; the institution of an in- 
quiry. 
There is no right in this partition, 
Ne was it so by institution 
Ordained first, ne by the law of Nature. 
Spenser, Mother Hub. Tale, 1. 144. 
That the institution and restitution of the world might 
be both wrought with one hand. Hooker, Eccles. Polity. 
2. Establishment in office; in ecclesiastical use, 
instatement in a spiritual charge ; investment 
with the cure of souls. See installation. 
For instilucion & indnccion he-schal seue moche of this 
god that is pore mennus. 
Wyclif, Works Hitherto Unprinted, p. 248. 
I, A. B., receive these keys of the House of God at your 
hands, as the pledges of my Institution. 
Book of Common Prayer, Office of Institution. 
3f. Establishment in learning ; instruction. 
His learning was not the effect of precept or institution. 
Bentley. 
4. Established rule or order; a principle of 
procedure in any relation; custom; more spe- 
cifically, an established habit of action, or body 
of related facts, regulating human conduct in 
the attainment of a social end, and constituting 
an element in the social organization or civil- 
ization of a community: as, government, the 
family, a language, is an institution. 
Never any Religion or Institution in the World made it 
so much its business to keep men from doing evil, and to 
perswade them to do good, as the Christian doth. 
Stilling fleet. Sermons, II. iii. 
Literary fosterage was an institution nearly connected 
with the existence of the Brehon law schools. 
Maine, Early Hist, of Institutions, p. 242. 
5. An established custom or usage, or a char- 
acteristic. [Chiefly colloq.] 
The camels form an institution of India possibly a part 
of the traditional policy and they must be respected ac- 
cordingly. Times (London), April, 1868. 
The pillory was a flourishing and popular institution in 
those days. Authors stood in it in the body sometimes. 
Thackeray, Eng. Humorists, p. 207. 
6. An establishment for the promotion of some 
object ; an organized society or body of persons, 
usually with a fixed place of assemblage and 
operation, devoted to a special pursuit or pur- 
pose: as, an educational institution; a charita- 
ble institution; the Smithsonian Institution at 
Washington. 
This led in 1796 to the formation of a Trade-Society, the 
so-called Institution, among the Clothworkers at Halifax, 
to prevent people from carrying on the trade in violation 
of custom and law. 
English Gilds (E. E. T. S.), Int., p. clxxii. 
Institution, in a statute exempting property of charita- 
ble institutions from taxation, signifies an organization 
which is permanent in its nature, as contradistinguished 
from an undertakingwhich is transientor temporary. It de- 
signates corporations or other organized bodies created to 
administer charities, and exempts the property which they 
own and use for their charitable purposes, and that only. 
Humphries v. Little Sisters oj the Poor, 29 Ohio statutes, 
[201. 
7f. A system of the elements or rules of any 
art or science ; a treatise or text-book. 
There is another manuscript of above three hundred 
years old, . . . being an institution of physic. Evelyn. 
8. Eccles.: (a) (1) The origination of the eu- 
charist, and enactment of its observance, by 
Christ. (2) The words used by Christ in in- 
stituting the eucharist, in the various forms as 
recorded in Scripture (Mat. xxvi. 26-28; Mark 
xiv. 22-24; Lukexxii. 19, 20; 1 Cor. xi. 23-25), 
or transmitted by tradition; in liturgies, the 
part of the prayer of consecration of the eu- 
charistic elements in which these words are re- 
peated. Also called more fully the commemora- 
tion, recital, or words of institution, in its fullest 
form, as exemplified in Oriental liturgies, in the Scotch 
communion office of 17C4, and in the American Prayer- 
book, the prayer of consecration consists of three princi- 
pal parts, the institution, oblation, and epiclesis or invo- 
cation. In nearly all the older liturgies (except the Ro- 
man) the institution seems principally conceived in the 
character of a recital of Christ's words and actions at the 
last supper, the great oblation and epiclesis consummating 
the observance commanded by him ; while in the Western 
liturgies, Including the Roman and that of the Church of 
Kn^land, but not the Mozarabic in its original form, nor 
the Scotch and American offices, the institution, with the 
