The subject of instinct might have been worked into the previous chapters; but I have thought that it would be more convenient to treat the subject separately, especially as so wonderful an instinct as that of the hive-bee making its cells will probably have occurred to many readers, as a difficulty sufficient to overthrow my whole theory.
I will not attempt any definition of instinct. It would be easy to show that several distinct mental actions are commonly embraced by this term; but every one understands what is meant, when it is said that instinct impels the cuckoo to migrate and to lay her eggs in other birds' nests.
In spite of these qualifications, the broad distinction between instinct and habit is undeniable.
What is true of animals, as regards instinct and habit, is equally true of men.
But how strange it was that the creative instinct should seize upon this dull stockbroker, to his own ruin, perhaps, and to the misfortune of such as were dependent on him; and yet no stranger than the way in which the spirit of God has seized men, powerful and rich, pursuing them with stubborn vigilance till at last, conquered, they have abandoned the joy of the world and the love of women for the painful austerities of the cloister.
But the desire for approbation is perhaps the most deeply seated instinct of civilised man.
"And yet you will pay no attention to my
instinct against Alfred Inglethorp."
The cub had never seen man, yet the
instinct concerning man was his.
The son inherited a strong
instinct for all the fine arts, and though he composed verses before he could write, seemed for years more likely to become a musician than a poet.
It is only an
instinct on my part, and no doubt the
instinct is wrong.
Maggie had returned without a trousseau , without a husband,--in that degraded and outcast condition to which error is well known to lead; and the world's wife, with that fine
instinct which is given her for the preservation of Society, saw at once that Miss Tulliver's conduct had been of the most aggravated kind.
He neither plays games nor has he the
instinct for them.
Do I counsel you to slay your
instincts? I counsel you to innocence in your
instincts.
The Snake was quickly revived by the warmth, and resuming its natural
instincts, bit its benefactor, inflicting on him a mortal wound.
Philip's rule of life, to follow one's
instincts with due regard to the policeman round the corner, had not acted very well there: it was because Cronshaw had done this that he had made such a lamentable failure of existence.
