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concept, the principle of hasps in general, and the test of a concept is the power to use the idea under similar circumstances.

This leads to Professor James' proposition: "The ability to deal with novel data is the technical differentia of reasoning." This is very well shown by the further history of the two dogs which I quote again :

"That the big dog in raising the latch did not in the least know that the latch closed the gate, that the raising of the same opened it, but that he merely repeated the automatic blow with his snout, which had once had such happy consequences, transpires from the following:

"The gate leading to the barn is fastened with a latch precisely like the one on the garden gate, only placed a little higher, still easily within the dog's reach.

"Here, too, occasionally the little dog is confined, and when he barks the big one makes every possible effort to open the gate, but it never has occurred to him to push the latch up. The brute cannot draw conclusions, that is, he cannot think."

These recepts might be defined as acquired instincts, or if that seems a contradiction of terms, acquired reflexes. It is certainly one step higher than the primary instincts, and is quite suggestive of the way in which our ancestors may have repeated certain actions till a tendency to do the same appeared in the offspring. The reason for many of our human instincts is now lost. Yet it never occurs to

us to question these actions in ourselves. "It takes what Berkeley calls a mind debauched by learning to make the natural seem strange, so far as to ask for why of any instinctive human act."

It was just said that the transmission of acquired habits might account for instincts, animal and human. This was the generally accepted view, altho it was recognized that the evidence was meager in the extreme. But in 1889 Weismann, of Freiburg, published a strong denial, outlining a theory which increases the scope of natural selection.

Weismann denies that functional qualities are transmissible, denies that the blacksmith's son is capable of any greater physical development than he would have been had his father followed some sedentary profession.

This view has gained many adherents in the intellectual world, and while it would be out of place to introduce the argument here, it must be mentioned that Herbert Spencer was strongly opposed. The principle of inheritance of acquired characteristics is part of the groundwork of his Synthetic Philosophy, and in the later controversy3 with Weismann he held his ground manfully.

What we need is to bear in mind the fact that we are richly endowed with instincts, and that these form a basis from which are developed habits, habits

I James: Psychology.

2 Essays upon Heredity.

3 Contemporary Review, September, 1893, October, 1894.

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of reasoning as well as of bodily movements. Reasoning is also based upon experience both individual and ancestral.

Man may therefore be said to be dominated by three sets of impulses.

(1) Congenital reflexes.

(2) Acquired reflexes. (3) Reason.

The second, acquired reflexes, is a somewhat arbitrary division, and its boundaries are difficult to determine. It is the transitional form, and, altho on its upper and lower sides it merges into the two extremes, its very existence tends to emphasize the gulf between instinct and reason. This difference is thus seen to be not merely one of degree but one of kind. The hights to which human reason may mount are indeed uncomprehensible to the common mind. The vast range of phenomena which a great mind can assimilate at a glance often makes him impatient with us common mortals who have to grope our way step by step. It is frequently quoted that Bowditch, who translated one of Laplace's books, said: Whenever his author prefaced a proposition by the words 'It is evident,' he knew that many hours of hard study lay before him, ere it became evident to him.”1

CHAPTER II

SUMMARY

Habit. - Human instincts are transient unless developed into habits. "As the twig is bent the tree inclines" - Habits are reflex arcs, which like electric currents follow the path of least resistance. The development of habits. - The moral significance. "Man is a mere bundle of habits." - The concatenated impulse; economic value. - Professional habits. Intelligent reading is wise skipping. — The conscious and subconscious; relationship. — The "Moment Consciousness" Sleep a dissociation of few or many nerve centers. - Dreams are sleeping hallucinations; duration short. —Caused by some centripetal stimulus, somatic or external. — Infinite resources of the subconscious. - Wonderful memory; how to utilize it.

anced.

--

A possible explanation of genius. — Geniuses not well balMental epidemics.- Concentration: in the crowd but not of it.

HABIT

PREYER has said that instincts are observable in the human animal only in infancy. This may not be strictly true, yet the preponderance of the instinctive in early life has for us some very important lessons. The other fact of immense practical value is the transiency of these instincts. Take, for example, the sucking instinct. Every experienced nurse recognizes the importance of putting the baby to the breast before the milk comes. If this be omitted and if there be any delay in the natural food, it is often no easy task to teach a child to nurse. This is espe

cially true of the lower animals, for there is evident in man a great lengthening of the period of infancy or helplessness.

As with the sucking instinct, immediate obedience makes continuance easy, so in a hundred ways instincts may be made permanent by carrying out the action, that is, by the establishment of a habit. The advantage of a lengthened infancy is the extension of the time of initiating habits.1

Obviously our habits are not all formed in infancy, but the difficulty of the acquisition increases with age. The longer the infancy, the longer the period of plasticity, the greater the number of lines of thought and action which can be implanted.

"As the twig is bent the tree inclines" is a principle never lost sight of by educators and reformers.

With the majority of people moral habits formed in the "teens" become dominant thru life, while the period between twenty and thirty fixes the professional habits. This general truth need not discourage us in attempting the acquisition of new habits if we have a clear conception of the actions necessary to the formation of a habit.

Without considering the question of whence, we are constantly subject to impulses. This may be an impulse to whistle. Now two courses are open, the individual may or may not carry out this impulse. Whether or not he be a free moral agent does not 'See John Fiske's Essay: The Meaning of Infancy.