The young lion spends much time in pretended
stalking of game and in harmless
struggles with his mates. He takes great
delight in the exercise of his cunning and in his
strength of limb and jaw. Fortunately for the
young lion this is the sort of activity best
adapted to develop his strength of muscle
and his cunning in capturing prey. However,
it is not for the sake of the training that the
young lion performs these particular acts.
He does them simply because he loves to. In
like manner the young greyhound chasing his
mates and the young squirrel gathering and
storing nuts have no thought beyond the instinctive
pleasure they find in performing these
functions. To each there is no other form of
activity so satisfactory.
Man possesses more instincts than any of
the lower animals. One pronounced instinct
in all normal males is the hunting instinct.
Grover Cleveland went fishing because he
loved the sport, not because of the value of
<p 189>
the fish caught. Theodore Roosevelt did not
hunt big game in Africa because he was in need
of luscious steaks or tawny hides. He was not
working solely in the interest of the Smithsonian
Institute nor to secure material for his
book. Doubtless these were subsidiary motives,
but the chief reason why he killed the
game was that he instinctively loves the sport.
He endured the hardships of Africa for the
same reason that fishermen spend days in the
icy water of a trout stream and hunters lie still
for hours suffering intense cold for a chance to
shoot at a bear.
_For some men, buying and selling is as great a
delight as felling a deer. For others the manufacture
of goods is as great a joy as landing a
trout. For such a man enthusiasm for his work
is unfailing and industry unremittent_.
He is suited to his task as is the cub to the
fight, the puppy to the chase, the squirrel to
the burying of nuts, or the hunter to the killing
of game. His labor always appeals to
him as the thing of supremest moment. His
interest in it is such that it never fails to in-
<p 190>
spire others by contagion. For such a man
laziness or indifference in business seems anomalous,
while industry and enthusiasm are as
natural as the air he breathes and as inexhaustible
as the air itself.
By classifying the love of the game as an
instinct, we seem to admit that it is born
and not developed; that some men possess
it and others do not; that if a man possesses
it, he does not need to cultivate it, and that
if he does not possess, he cannot acquire it.
There is doubtless much truth in this, but
fortunately it is not the whole truth.
Some instincts are specific--even stereotyped
--and not subject to cultivation or
change. Thus the bee's instinctive method of
gathering and storing honey is very specific
and definite. The bee is unable to modify its
routine to any great extent. The bee which
does not instinctively perform the different
acts properly will never learn to.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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