It is unnecessary for me to give the details of the first part of my
long journey. My companion was guided by a perceptive faculty that, like
the compass, enabled him to keep in the proper course. He did not
question those whom we met, and made no endeavor to maintain a given
direction; and yet he was traveling in a part of the country that was
new to himself. I marveled at the accuracy of his intuitive perception,
for he seemed never to be at fault. When the road forked, he turned to
the right or the left in a perfectly careless manner, but the continuity
of his course was never interrupted. I began mentally to question
whether he could be guiding us aright, forgetting that he was reading my
thoughts, and he answered: "There is nothing strange in this
self-directive faculty. Is not man capable of following where animals
lead? One of the objects of my special study has been to ascertain the
nature of the instinct-power of animals, the sagacity of brutes. The
carrier pigeon will fly to its cote across hundreds of miles of strange
country. The young pig will often return to its pen by a route unknown
to it; the sluggish tortoise will find its home without a guide, without
seeing a familiar object; cats, horses and other animals possess this
power, which is not an unexplainable instinct, but a natural sense
better developed in some of the lower creatures than it is in man. The
power lies dormant in man, but exists, nevertheless. If we develop one
faculty we lose acuteness in some other power. Men have lost in mental
development in this particular direction while seeking to gain in
others. If there were no record of the fact that light brings objects to
the recognition of the mind through the agency of the eye, the sense of
sight in an animal would be considered by men devoid of it as
adaptability to extraordinary circumstances, or instinct. So it is that
animals often see clearly where to the sense of man there is only
darkness; such sight is not irresponsive action without consciousness
of a purpose. Man is not very magnanimous. Instead of giving credit to
the lower animals for superior perception in many directions, he denies
to them the conscious possession of powers imperfectly developed in
mankind. We egotistically aim to raise ourselves, and do so in our own
estimation by clothing the actions of the lower animals in a garment of
irresponsibility. Because we can not understand the inwardness of their
power, we assert that they act by the influence of instinct. The term
instinct, as I would define it, is an expression applied by men to a
series of senses which man possesses, but has not developed. The word is
used by man to characterize the mental superiority of other animals in
certain directions where his own senses are defective. Instead of
crediting animals with these, to them, invaluable faculties, man
conceitedly says they are involuntary actions. Ignorant of their mental
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account