lking both possible and pleasurable
to it. So we are said instinctively to hold out our hands to save
ourselves from falling, but this is an acquired habit, which the infant
does not possess. It appears to me that instinct should be defined
as--"the performance by an animal of complex acts, absolutely without
instruction or previously-acquired knowledge." Thus, acts are said to be
performed by birds in building their nests, by bees in constructing
their cells, and by many insects in providing for the future wants of
themselves or their progeny, without ever having seen such acts
performed by others, and without any knowledge of why they perform them
themselves. This is expressed by the very common term "blind instinct."
But we have here a number of assertions of matters of fact, which,
strange to say, have never been proved to be facts at all. They are
thought to be so self-evident that they may be taken for granted. No
one has ever yet obtained the eggs of some bird which builds an
elaborate nest, hatched these eggs by steam or under a quite distinct
parent, placed them afterwards in an extensive aviary or covered garden,
where the situation and the materials of a nest similar to that of the
parent birds may be found, and then seen what kind of nest these birds
would build. If under these rigorous conditions they choose the same
materials, the same situation, and construct the nest in the same way
and as perfectly as their parents did, instinct would be proved in their
case; now it is only assumed, and assumed, as I shall show further on,
without any sufficient reason. So, no one has ever carefully taken the
pupae of a hive of bees out of the comb, removed them from the presence
of other bees, and loosed them in a large conservatory with plenty of
flowers and food, and observed what kind of cells they would construct.
But till this is done, no one can say that bees build without
instruction, no one can say that with every new swarm there are no bees
older than those of the same year, who may be the teachers in forming
the new comb. Now, in a scientific inquiry, a point which can be proved
should not be assumed, and a totally unknown power should not be brought
in to explain facts, when known powers may be sufficient. For both these
reasons I decline to accept the theory of instinct in any case where all
other possible modes of explanation have not been exhausted.

_Does Man possess Instincts._

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