LECTURE XXVII

§ I. Instinctive Action IN Man. § II. Acquired Instincts. § III.
Connate Instincts. § IV. Practice, Imitation, and Inherit¬
ance.   § V.  Relation of Animal to Human Instinct.

BY an instinctive action we understand, as remarked above,
something purposive, but involuntary, half impulsive and
half reflex. It cannot be doubted that in this sense many
human activities come under the category of instinctive action.
We laugh and weep, we make the most complex mimetic
movements, without, or even against, our wish or our know¬
ledge. Most of our movements are determined by emotion,
and volition manifests itself quite as often in the moderation or
inhibition of movements as in their independent initiation. Not
seldom the will simply definitises the direction of a movement;
its execution is left to instinct. When we walk, it is generally
volition that prescribes the road ; but step follows step in¬
stinctively. Many actions at first require practice and the
exercise of voluntary effort, but when once they have become
familiar, may be performed under almost exclusively instinctive
control. The child learning to write will laboriously copy every
stroke of the pen ; the ready writer needs only the intention to
write some particular word, and it stands before him on the
paper. The novice at the piano must strain his attention upon
every note, in order to find the appropriate key ; the practised
player translates the printed page mechanically into the proper
movements. Any movement that has become altogether
habitual is made instinctively. An impulse of will is, of course,
necessary at the outset; but its effect extends to a whole series
of actions, and each particular one takes place without effort
and without knowledge : the series once started is continued to

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