It will also be manifested, as a matter of course,
without further consciousness or reflection, for people cannot be always
opening up settled questions; if they thought a matter all over yesterday
they cannot think it all over again to-day, what they thought then they
will think now, and will act upon their opinion; and this, too, even in
spite sometimes of misgiving, that if they were to think still further
they could find a still better course. It is not, therefore, to be
expected that "instinct" should show signs of that hesitating and
tentative action which results from knowledge that is still so imperfect
as to be actively self-conscious; nor yet that it should grow or vary
perceptibly unless under such changed conditions as shall baffle memory,
and present the alternative of either invention--that is to say,
variation--or death.
But every instinct must have passed through the laboriously intelligent
stages through which human civilisations _and mechanical inventions_ are
now passing; and he who would study the origin of an instinct with its
development, partial transmission, further growth, further transmission,
approach to more unreflecting stability, and finally, its perfection as
an unerring and unerringly transmitted instinct, must look to laws,
customs, _and machinery_ as his best instructors. Customs and machines
are instincts _and organs_ now in process of development; they will
assuredly one day reach the unconscious state of equilibrium which we
observe in the structures and instincts of bees and ants, and an approach
to which may be found among some savage nations.
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