circumstances. No two moments in time are identical; though the
background remain the same, the details change; the unexpected rises on
every side. In this bewildering confusion, a guide is needed to seek,
accept, refuse and select; to show preference for this and indifference
to that; to turn to account, in short, anything useful that occasion may
offer. This guide the insect undoubtedly possesses, to a very manifest
degree. It is the second province of its mentality. Here it is conscious
and capable of improvement by experience. I dare not speak of this
rudimentary faculty as intelligence, which is too exalted a title: I
will call it DISCERNMENT. The insect, in exercising its highest gifts,
discerns, differentiates between one thing and another, within the
sphere of its business, of course; and that is about all.

As long as we confound acts of pure instinct and acts of discernment
under the same head, we shall fall back into those endless discussions
which embitter controversy without bringing us one step nearer to the
solution of the problem. Is the insect conscious of what it does? Yes
and no. No, if its action is in the province of instinct; yes, if the
action is in that of discernment. Are the habits of an insect capable of
modification? No, decidedly not, if the habit in question belongs to the
province of instinct; yes, if it belongs to that of discernment. Let us
state this fundamental distinction more precisely by the aid of a few
examples.

The Pelopaeus builds her cells with earth already softened, with mud.
Here we have instinct, the unalterable characteristic of the worker.
She has always built in this way and always will. The passing ages will
never teach her, neither the struggle for life nor the law of selection
will ever induce her to imitate the Mason-bee and collect dry dust
for her mortar. This mud nest needs a shelter against the rain. The
hiding-place under a stone suffices at first. But should she find
something better, the potter takes possession of that something better
and instals herself in the home of man. (The Pelopaeus builds in the
fire-places of houses.--Translator's Note.) There we have discernment,
the source of some sort of capacity for improvement.

The Pelopaeus supplies her larvae with provisions in the form of
Spiders. There you have instinct. The climate, the longitude or
latitude, the changing seasons, the abundance or scarcity of game
introduce no modification into this diet