Qassj ^. Book-Ll^2:L ^71 EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY VOLUME I THE ORIGINAL NATURE OF MAN EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY VOLUME I THE ORIGINAL NATURE OF MAN BY EDWARD L. THORNDIKE PROFESSOR or EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY IN TEACHERS COLLEGE COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PUBLISHED BY ^eattiita eToIIece, €oluxnbia C^nibersits NEW YORK 1921 Copyright 1913, By EDWARD L. THORNDIKE ^3 X THE MA80N PRINTINC CORPORATISM STRACI/SK AND NSW YORK TO THE MEMORY OF WILLIAM JAMES PREFACE This volume, which describes man's original mental equip- ment — the inherited foundations of intellect, morals and skill, — is the first of three, which, together, give the main facts of educational psychology. The second volume, on The Psychol- ogy of Learning, treats of the laws of learning in general, the improvement of mental functions by practice and their deterior- ation by fatigue. The third volume, on Individual Differences and Their Causes, treats of the variations of individual men around the general type characteristic of man as a species, and of the influence o-f sex, race, immediate ancestry, maturity and train- ing in producing these variations. This third volume was written first, appearing in 1903 under the general title. Educational Psychology. A systematic account of present knowledge of the dynamics of human nature and behavior is much needed for students of education and other forms of human control. These volumes represent a selection from, and organization of, recent work in experimental, statistical and comparative psychology, such as will, I hope, economize effort and diminish the chances of error for such students. The reader to whom these volumes bring any new insight into human nature, power in the quantitative treatment of mental facts, or interest in the rich details of concrete human nature, will be- come a sharer in my debt to my teachers, William James and James McKeen Cattell, and to that intrepid devotee to concrete human nature, Stanley Hall, whose doctrines I often attack, but whose genius I always admire. Parts of Chapters I, II, VII, IX, X and KVII of this volume constituted four lectures given at Union College in March, 191 3, under the provisions of the Ichabod Spencer Foundation. Teachers College, Columbia XJ^niversity, March, 1913 yii CONTENTS Chapteh Pagb I. Introduction i Original z'ersus Learned Tendencies The Problems of Original Nature II. General Characteristics OF Original Tendencies 5 Names for Original Tendencies The Components of an Original Tendency The Action of Original Tendencies Stages in the Description of Human Nature III Inventories OF the Original Nature OF Man. .. . 16 James' Inventory Indefiniteness in Descriptions of Original Ten- dencies Criteria of the Probsble Ilnlearnedness of a Ten- dency IV. Sources of Information 27 The Discovery of Original Tendencies by Svste- matic Observation of Children The Discovery of Original Tendencies by a Cen- sus of Opinions Other Sources The Insecurity of Present Information V. Responses of Sensitivity. Attention ^and Gross Bodily Control 43 Sensory Capacities Original Attentiveness Gross Bodily Control VI. Food Getting, Protective Responses, and Anger. . 50 Food (letting IX X CONTENTS Chaptkr Page Habitation Fear Fighting Anger VII. Responses to the Behavior of Other Human Beings 8i Motherly Behavior Responses to the Presence, Approval and Scorn of Men Mastering and Submissive Behavior Other Social Instincts VIII. Responses to the Bepiavior of Other Human Beings : Imitation io8 General Imitativeness The Imitation of Particular Forms of Behavior IX. Original Satisfiers and Annoyers 123 The Original Nature of Wants, Interests and Motives The Principles of Readiness The Explanation of 'Multiple Response' or 'Varied Reaction' X. Tendencies to Minor Bodily Movements and Cerebral Connections 135 Vocalization, Visual Exploration and Manipula- tion Other Possible Specializations Curiosity and Mental Control Play 'Random' Movements XI. The Emotions and Their Expression 150 Difficulties in Identifying and Studying Emo- tional States McDougall's Inventory of Original Tendencies to Emotional States CONTENTS Xi Chapter r^ee The Relation of Emotions to the Movements which "Express" Them The Original Bonds of the Expressive Movements XII. Consciousness, Learning and Remembering 170 Original Tendencies to Consciousness The Capacity to Learn Limitations to Modifiability The Supposed Formation of Connections by "Faculties" The Supposed Formation of Connections by the Perception of Their Action in Another The Supposed Formation of Connections by the Power of an Idea to Produce the Act which it Represents Attempted Explanations of Learning by the Laws ' of Exercise Alone Remembering XIIL Summary, Criticism and Classification 195 The Action of Fragments and Combinations of Original Tendencies The Variability of Men in Original Tendencies The Modifiability of Original Tendencies A Summary of Man's Original Nature Criticisms The Classification of Original Tendencies XIV. The Anatomy and Physiology of Original Ten- dencies 209 The Structure of the Neurones The Arrangement of the Neurones Sensitivity and Conductivity The Physiology of the Capacity to Learn and of Readiness The Physiology of Delay and Transitoriness in Original Tendencies XV. The Source of Original Tendencies 230 The Hypothesis of the Transmission of Acquired Traits Xll CONTENTS Chaptbk Pace Tlie Selection of 'Chance' Variations in the Germ Plasm The Continuity of Original Tendencies The Extent of Selection for Intellectual and Moral Superiority XVI. The Order and Dates of Appearance and Dis- appearance OF Original Tendencies. 245 The Recapitulation Theory The Utility Theory The Evidence The Dates of Appearance of Particular Ten- dencies The Gradual Waxing of Delayed Instincts and Capacities The Probable Frequency of Transitoriness in Original Tendencies XVII. The Value and Use of Original Tendencies. . . . 270 The Doctrine of Nature's Infallibility The Doctrine of Catharsis Defects in Man's Original Nature The Use of Original Tendencies in Detail Original Tendencies as Ends : Emulation in the Case of School 'Marks' Original Tendencies as Means : Suggestion in Education Original versus 'Natural' Tendencies The Importance of the Original Satisfiers and Annoyers The True Significance of Plasticity Which Instincts are of Most Worth Original Nature the Ultimate Source of All Values Bibliography of References Made in the Text. . : 313 Index 320 The Original Nature of Man chapter i Introduction The arts and sciences sen^e human welfare by helping man to change the world, including man himself, for the better. The word education refers especially to those elements of sci- ence and art which are concerned with changes in man himself. Wisdom and economy in improving man's wants and in making him better able to satisfy them depend upon knowledge — first, of what his nature is, apart from education, and second, of the laws which govern changes in it. It is the province of educational psychology to give such knowledge of the original nature of man and of the laws of modifiability or learning, in the case of intellect, character and skill, A man's nature and the changes that tal<:e place in it may be described in terms of the responses — of thought, feeling, action and attitude — which he makes, and of the bonds by which these are connected with the situations which life offers. Any fact of intellect, character or skill means a tendency to respond in a certain way to a certain situation — involves a situation or state of affairs influencing the man, a response or state of affairs in the man, and a connection or bond whereby the latter is the result of the former. ORIGINAL versus LEARNED TENDENCIES Any man possesses at the very start of his life — that is, at the moment when the ovum and spermatozoon which are to produce him have united — numerous well-defined tendencies I I 2 THE ORIGINAL NATURE OF MAN to future behavior.* Between the situations which he will meet and the responses which he will make to them, pre-formed bonds exist. It is already determined by the constitution of these two germs, that under certain circumstances he wall see and hear and feel and act in certain ways. His intellect and morals, as well as his bodily organs and movements, are in part the consequence of the nature of the embryo in the first moment of its life. What a man is and does throughout life is a result of whatever constitution he has at the start and of all the forces that act upon it before and after birth. I shall use the term 'original nature' for the former and 'environment' for the latter. His original nature is thus a name for the nature of the combined germ-cells from which he springs, and his en- vironment is a name for the rest of the universe, so far as it may, directly or indirectly, influence him. In one sense nothing in human nature is due exclusively to either one of these factors. Those tendencies most dependent on the original nature of the organism require certain coopera- tion on the part of the environment ; and those most dependent on outside circumstances still require some cooperation on the part of the organism. Even the first splitting of the fertilized ovum into two cells occurs only when adequate stimuli, for instance of temperature, act ab extra; and even the death of the organism by starvation occurs only, its date at least, in accord with certain responses from within. But in another sense the most fundamental question for human education asks precisely that we assign separate shares in the causation of human behavior to man's original nature on the one hand and his environment or nurture on the other. ♦Since the term, behavior, has acquired certain technical meanings in its use by psychologists, and since it will be frequently used in this book, the meaning which will be attached to it here should perhaps be stated. I use it to refer to those activities of thought, feeling, and conduct in the broadest sense which an animal — here, man — exhibits, which are omitted from dis- cussion by the physics, chemistry and ordinary physiology of today, and which are referred by popular usage to intellect, character, skill and tem- perament. Behavior, then, is not contrasted with, but inclusive of, conscious life. INTRODUCTION 3 In this sense we neglect, or take for granted, the cooperating action of one of the two divisions in order to think more success- fully and conveniently of the action of the other. Thus, we say that man is by his original nature able to see, but that what he sees depends upon the environment he meets ; or that original nature makes him respond to certain objects by fears, which environmental training weakens; or that a child instinctively conveys food to his mouth with the naked hand, but by habit comes to use a spoon as well ; or that native curiosity develops, by proper training, into interests in the arts and sciences. The custom of thus abstracting out the original nature of man in independence of any and all influences upon it is so general and so useful that it is best to follow it throughout, remembering, however, that from the first moments after the fertilization of the ovum, a human individual is always an acquired nature, — that in the most original behavior discover- able, such as breathing or suckling, some outside conditions are involved, — and that in tlie most exclusively acquired or learned arts, such as knowledge of the square root of 256, some element of original capacity has a share. THE PROBLEMS OF ORIGINAL NATURE Elementary psychology acquaints us with the fact that men are, apart from education, equipped with tendencies to feel and act in certain ways in certain circumstances — that the response to be made to a situation may be determined by man's inborn organization. It is, in fact, a general law that, other things being equal, the response to any situation will be that which is by original nature connected with that situation, or with some situation like it. Any neurone will, when stimulated, transmit the stimulus, other things being equal, to the neurone with which it is by inborn organization most closely connected. The basis of intellect and character is tliis fund of unlearned tendencies, this original arrangement of the neurones in the brain. The original connections may develop at various dates and 4 THE ORIGINAL NATURE OF MAN may exist for only limited times; their waxing and waning- may be sudden or gradual. They are the starting point for all education or other human control. The aim of education is to perpetuate some of them, to eliminate some, and to modify or redirect others. They are perpetuated by providing the stimuli adequate to arouse them and give them exercise, and by associating satisfaction with their action. They are elim- inated by withholding these stimuli so that they abort through disuse, or by associating discomfort with their action. They are redirected by substituting, in the situation-connection-re- sponse series, another response instead of the undesirable original one; or by attaching the response to another situation in connection with which it works less or no harm, or even positive good. It is a first principle of education to utilize any individual's original nature as a means to changing him for the better — to produce in him the information, habits, powers, interests and ideals which are desirable. The behavior of man in the family, in business, in the state, in religion and in every other affair of life is rooted in his unlearned, original equipment of instincts and capacities. All schemes of improving human life must take account of man's original nature, most of all when their aim is to reverse or counteract it. A study of the original nature of man as a species and of the original natures of individual men is therefore the primary task of human psychology. This volume is concerned with only the former task. The main topics of such a study are : 1. The description and classification of original tendencies, 2. Their anatomy and physiology, 3. Their source or origin, 4. The order and dates of their appearance and disap- pearance, and c;. Their control in the service of human ideals. chapter ii General Characteristics of Original Tendencies NAMES for original TENDENCIES Three terms, reflexes, instincts, and inborn capacities, di- vide the work of naming these unlearned tendencies. When the tendency concerns a very definite and uniform response to a very simple sensory situation, and when the connection be- tween the situation and the response is very hard to modify and is also very strong so that it is almost inevitable, the con- nection or response to which it leads is called a reflex.. Thus the knee-jerk is a very definite and uniform response to the simple sense-stimulus of sudden hard pressure against a cer- tain spot. It is hard to lessen, to increase, or otherwise control the movement, and, given the situation, the response almost always comes. When the response is more indefinite, the situation more complex, and the connection more modifiable, instinct becomes the customary term. Thus one's misery at being scorned is too indefinite a response to too complex a sit- uation and is too easily modifiable to be called a reflex. When the tendency is to an extremely indefinite response or set of re- sponses to a very complex situation, and when the connection's final degree of strength is commonly due to very large con- tributions from training, it has seemed more appropriate to replace reflex and instinct by some term like capacity, or ten- dency, or potentiality. Thus an original tendency to respond to the circumstances of school education by achievement in learning the arts and sciences is called the capacity for scholar- ship. There is, of course, no gap between reflexes and instincts, or between instincts and the still less easily describable original tendencies. The fact is that original tendencies range with re- spect to the nature of the responses from such as are single, 5 O THE ORIGINAL NATURE OF MAN simple, definite, uniform within the individual and only slightly variable amongst individuals, to responses that are highly com- pound, complex, vague, and variable within one individual's life and amongst individuals. They range with respect to the nature of the situation from simple facts like temperature, oxy- gen or humidity, to very complex facts like 'meeting suddenly and unexpectedly a large animal when in the dark without human companions,' and include extra-bodily, bodily, and what would be commonly called purely mental, situations. They range with respect to the bond or connection from slight modifi- ability to great modifiability, and from very close likeness amongst individuals to fairly wide variability. Much labor has been spent in trying to make hard and fast distinctions between reflexes and instincts and between instincts and these vaguer predispositions which are here called capac- ities. It is more useful and more scientific to avoid such dis- tinctions in thought, since in fact there is a continuous grada- tion. THE COMPONENTS OF AN ORIGINAL TENDENCY A typical reflex, or instinct, or capacity, as a whole, includes the ability to be sensitive to a certain situation, the ability to make a certain response, and the existence of a bond or con- nection whereby that response is made to that situation. For instance, the young chick is sensitive to the absence of other members of his species, is able to peep, and is so organized that the absence of other members of the species makes him peep. But the tendency to be sensitive to a certain situation may exist without the existence of a connection therewith of any further exclusive response, and the tendency to make a certain response may exist without the existence of a connection limiting that response exclusively to any single situation. The three-year- old child is by inborn nature markedly sensitive to the presence and acts of other human beings, but the exact nature of his response varies. The original tendency to cry is very strong, but there is no one situation to which it is exclusively bound. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 7 Original nature seems to decide that the individual will respond somehow to certain situations more often than it decides just what he will do, and to decide that he will make certain responses more often than it decides just when he will make them. So, for convenience in thinking- about man's un- learned equipment, this appearance of multiple response to one same situation and multiple causation of one same response may be taken roughly as the fact. It must not, however, be taken to mean that the result of an action set up in the sensory neurones by a situation is essen- tially unpredictable — that, for instance, exactly the same neur- one-action (paralleling, let us say, the sight of a dog by a certain two-year-old child) may lead, in the two-year-old, now to the act of crying, at another time to shy retreat, at another to effusive joy, and at still another to curious examination of the newcomer, all regardless of any modification by experience. On the contrary, in the same organism the same neurone-action will always produce the same result — in the same individual the really same situation will always produce the same response. ^ The apparent existence of an original sensitivity unconnected with any one particular response, so that apparently the same cause produces different results, is to be explained in one of two ways. First, the apparently same situations may really be different. Thus, the sight of a dog to an infant in its mother's arms is not the same situation as the sight of a dog to an infant alone on the doorstep. Being held in its mother's arms is a part of the situation that may account for the response of mild curiosity in the former case and fear in the latter. Second, if the situations are really identical, the apparently same organism really differs. Thus a dog seen by a child, healthy, rested and calm, may lead to only curiosity, whereas, if seen by the same child, fll, fatigued, and nervously irritable, it may lead to fear. The organism may differ by being differ- ently disposed in its sensory apparatus, in its associative or connecting apparatus, in its motor neurones, in its muscular condition, or in other organs concerned in the response. These 8 THE ORIGINAL NATURE OF MAN predispositions may come through conditions of nutrition, poi- soning, fatigue, cooperative stimulation, etc., etc.* .^ Similarly, the really same response is never made to differ- ^ ent situations by the same organism. When the same response j seems to be made to different situations, closer inspection will show that the responses do differ; or that the situations were, in respect to the element that determined the response, identical ; or that the organism is itself different. Thus, though 'a ball seen,' *a tin soldier seen,' and 'a rattle seen' alike provoke 'reaching for,' the total responses do differ, the central nervous system being provoked to three different responses manifested as three different sense-impressions — of a ball, of a tin soldier, and of a rattle. Thus, if 'ball grasped,' 'tin soldier grasped,' and 'rattle grasped' alike provoke 'throwing,' it is because only one particular component, common to the three situations, is effective in determining the act. Thus, if a child now weeps whenever spoken to, whereas before he wept only when hurt or scolded, it is because he is now exhausted, excited, or otherwise changed. The original connections between situation and response are never due to chance in its true sense, but there are many minor cooperating forces by which a current of conduction in the same sensory neurones or receptors may. on different occasions, Biverge to produce different results in behavior, and by which very different sensory stimulations may converge to a substan- tially common consequence. One may use several useful abstract schemes by which to think of man's original equipment of reflexes, instincts and capacities. Perhaps the most convenient is a series of S-R con- nections of three types. Some are of the type — Si leads to Ri, its peculiar sequent ; some are of the type — Si leads to Ri or R2 or R3 or R4 or R5 etc., according to very minor casual contribu-" tory causes ; some are of the type — Si leads to R+i"i, S2 leads to *Their most potent causes are the effects of previous experience, but these do not concern the present inquiry, since all effects of previous experience are, of course, to be rigorously excluded from a description of original nature. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS R+Tz, S3 leads to R+fa etc., where n, Vz and rg are minor results. Graphically this scheme is represented by Figs, i, 2 and 3. F>G. I. S, _R, ,. -V-- — — — ^— ^— — - ^» 5»- Fig. 3. ^^ r "*^^ 1 ' ''••^ .■"A." r. Besides such a system of tendencies deciding which response any given situation will produce, there are certain tendencies that decide the status of features common to all situation-re- sponse connections. There is, for example, in man an original tendency whereby any connection once made tends, other things being equal, to persist. There is also a tendency whereby any connection or response may or may not be in readiness to be made — may be excited to action easily or with difficulty. These tendencies toward the presence or absence of a certain feature in all connections or responses will be examined by themselves in due time. THE ACTION OF ORIGINAL TENDENCIES We can imagine a man's life so arranged that one after another original tendency should be called into play, each by itself. Let him be in a certain status, and let, successively, the light grow five times as intense, snuff be blown up his nos- trils, a dear friend approach, and the earth quake, without lO THE ORIGINAL NATURE OF MAN in any case any other changes whatever either in the surround- ings or in his internal status. Then the pupils of his eyes would contract, he would sneeze, he would smile, and he would start. The original tendencies of man, however, rarely act one at a time in isolation one from another. Life apart from learning would not be a simple serial arrangement, over and over, of a hundred or so situations, each a dynamic unit : and of a hundred? or so responses, fitted to these situations by a one-to-one cor- respondence. On the contrary, they cooperate in multitudinous combinations. Their combination may be apparent in behavior, as when the tendencies to look at a bright moving object, to reach for a small object passing a foot away, and to smile at a smiling familiar face combine to make a baby smilingly fixate and reach for the watch which his father swings. Or the com- bination may take place unobserved in the nervous system, as when a large animal suddenly approaching a solitary child makes him run and hide, thougli the child in question would neither run nor hide at solitude, at the presence of the animal, or at the sudden approach of objects in general. It is also the case that any given situation does not act absolutely as a unit, producing either one total response or none at all. Its effect is the total effect of its elements, of which now one, now another may predominate in determining re- sponse, according to cooperating forces without and within the man. The action of the situations which move man's original nature is not that of some thousands of keys each of which unlocks one door and does nothing else whatever. Any situa- tion is a complex, producing a complex effect; and so, if attendant circumstances vary, a variable effect. In any case it does, so to speak, what it can. Ultimately, indeed, every fact in htmian life is a case of the co-action of all the universe except the man in question, and the condition of* the man in question at that instant. In taking anything short of all the universe save him and calling it the situation, we are abstracting — ^are replacing the total effective GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS II situation by some element of it. Also, in taking anything short of the rich entirety of the man at that instant as the organ- ism, we are abstracting — are replacing the total effective coni- ditions of the response by some of their main features. Such abstraction is, of course, the procedure of common sense and of science. Everywhere there is abundant justification for building up an abstract scheme of the responses which situa- tions a, b, c, singly evoke, thoug'h in fact they never act singly ; or of the bonds between situation d and a total set of responses, though in fact the various component elements of d are never present in just the same proportions so that the very existence of d/ as a thing by itself is a myth. STAGES IN THE DESCRIPTION OF HUMAN NATURE The history of modern explanations of human intellect, character and skill shows three notable stages. In the first, cer- tain mythical potencies were postulated which, when aroused to action by the events of a man's life, produced his thoughts and acts. These potencies were 'instinct,' which could do almost anything in a pinch, the 'will,' and the 'faculties' — memory, at- tention, reasoning and the like. The actual information about human nature carried by these explanations was, as in the current uses of 'instinct of preservation' or 'capacity for self- expression,' that man was able to attain certain results in living. To say that he had the faculty or capacity of memory said that his present behavior was in one way or another influenced by his past experiences. To say that he had the power of reason was to say that he managed by thought to get along with conditions which would baffle a stone, tree, rabbit, or himself if he had not thought. Science of this sort could prophesy very little of the behavior of any given man in any given situation. In the second stage, behavior is defined in terms of more or less clearly described states of affairs to which man responds by more or less clearly described thoughts, movements, emotions or other responses. 'Instinct' gives way to 'instincts' — each referring to a bond between some situation and some response. 12 THE ORIGINAL NATURE OF MAN In place of referring the influence of the past on the present to a ubiquitous demon called memory who alternately absorbs and excretes facts, men study the formation of particular associations or bonds, the conditions of their permanence and later effectiveness. Reasoning becomes a convenient name for the cases of behavior where some part or element in the situa- tion is predominant in determining the response, and where selection takes place amongst plans in view of ideas about their value for some end. We thus seek, in this second stage of thought, not a potency that vaguely produces large groups of consequences, but bonds that unite particular responses or- reactions to particular situations or stimuli. Science of this sort leads to many successful prophecies of what a man will think or do in a given case, but these prophecies are crude and subject to variability and qualification. In the third stage, behavior will be defined in terms of events in the world which any impartial observer can identify and, with proper facilities, verify. Each situation will be stated as just this state of affairs in nature; the response will be stated as just this event in the man ; and the bond will be stated as just this set of habits or just that arrangement and condition of the man's neurones by which the event in the man is brought to pass when that state of affairs is present in nature. Science of this sort, by giving perfect identifiability and fuller knoAvl- edge, leads to completer and finer prophecy and control of human nature. The descriptions of certain tendencies to behavior — for example, that of paramecium in response to certain chemicals, that of the dog in response to a drop of acid on certain spots of his skin, and that of man in response to a tap on a certain spot on the knee — are advancing from tlie second to the third stage. The descriptions of the instincts of fear, anger, and the like are advancing from the first to the second stage. But scores of such teiTns as musical ability, mathematical ability, technical skill, scholarship, artistic temperament, piety, quar- relsomeness, conventionality, cooperativeness, the instinct of GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 13 self-pres€rvation, the social instinct, the gambling instinct, the play instinct, the instinct for justice, and the like .witness to the great number of human tendencies whose descriptions are still of the pattern of the first stage — ^mere statements that some- how or other a certain result is attained. Instincts as mythical potencies are, to say the least, not rigor- ously excluded by even two very recent and in many ways ad- mirable discussions — one, of the relation of instinct to intelli- gence; the other, of the significance of instincts for a philosophy of education. The eminent psychologists who discussed 'In- stinct and Intelligence' in the British Journal of Psychology- two years ago ['lo, vol. 3, pp. 209-266] again and again speak of instinct as if it were something like a heart or a thyroid gland or a 'memory' or an 'imagination,' which did this and that for a man. Henderson seems deliberately to advocate remaining in this first stage of thought in the case of unlearned tendencies. He says : — "The instincts are the functions of the organism considered from the point of view of the needs that they supply. Most lists of instincts are selected according to this conception, as the feeding instinct, the instinct of fear, of sociability, of acquisitiveness, of curiosity. On the other hand, the instinctive act is a complex of movements that constitutes an hereditarily preferred method of carrying out one or many instincts. Cry- ing, for example, is an instinctive act, and it may be resorted to as a means of satisfying the instinct of hunger, that of fear, that of sociability, and, indeed, almost any instinct that appears during the period when this type of activity prevails. Just as one instinctive act may be utilized by many instincts, so one instinct may function by means of a variety of types of in- stinctive or habitual activity. Thus the instinct of fear may lead to a resort to the instinctive acts of crouching, lying still, or hiding, or that of flight, or in extreme cases, perhaps, that of desperate fighting." ['10, p. 65] Next to the separation of what is original from what is learned, the main task of a description of the original nature of man is to progress from the first to the second of these stages.* *Progress irom the second to the third stage will depend upon researches yet to be made. If the inventory and description of the original intellect 14 THE ORIGINAL NATURE OF MAN For it has remained a common practice to describe an original tendency only by its results even when, by enough attention to facts, the situation and the response could have been at least roughly defined. This is unfortunate. It is no more necessary, and is much less accurate, to describe man loosely as possessed of an 'instinct of self-preservation' than it is to describe oxygen as possessed of an 'instinct of rust production.' The real facts meant, in this and in all cases, are a multitude of more or less specialized responses to certain actual situations, — in this sample case, drawing back from a missile or blow, running from this, striking back at that, swallowing what tastes sweet, spitting out what tastes very bitter, going to sleep after long exertion, waking up after long sleep, picking up the small object seen, putting in one's mouth the object picked up, etc., etc. The instinct is not a response to, 'Pre- serve self or destroy self?' but to particular material objects and living animals or plants. Its moving impulse is not 'to preserve self — to stay alive' but some such concrete feeling as 'get rid of this hunger — to feel comfortably full again' or 'to get away from that horrid beast.' In the case of the instinct proper, unmodified by experience, the moving impulse is not a notion of end or aim at all. For, originally, the situation it- self provokes the response irrespective of any thoughts of the consequences. Even sophisticated adults eat oftenest because they arc hungry or see or smell food, not. because they zvill be full. The name is especially misleading because the same instincts which usually result in preservation may result in death. The child's struggles against the operating surgeon or the tasting of lye, corrosive sublimate and the like along with spools and candy, are samples of the thousands of such possibilities. and character of man as a species to be given in this volume were to be confined to perfectly identifiable and demonstrable bonds between perfectly identified situations and responses, hardly a word could be said about one out of ten of the instincts and capacities with which education, politics, business and philanthropy are chiefly concerned. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 15 There is no unlearned tendency to respond to 'life vs. death,' and probably there is none which inevitably, under every set of conditions, does result in life rather than in death. Indeed, only after the tendency is defined in terms of an identifiable response to an identifiable situation can one profitably inquire whether it is original or acquired, or how far it is original and how far acquired. If one insists resolutely on replacing a list of instincts as magic potencies which produce certain results, by a statement of even roughly definable bonds between actual situations and actual thoughts, feelings and acts, it becomes necessary to part company with the stock descriptions of instincts. It will be a great advantage if thought about the life of man can be ad- vanced to a level of description which will exclude teleological lists having as their themes such mythical potencies as the 'instinct of self-preservation,' which makes you stay alive — the 'social instinct,' which makes you construct a society, — the 'parental instinct,' which makes you treat your own flesh and blood so as to favor them in all ways, — ^the 'religious in- stinct,' which makes you believe in a world of spirits, — 'con- structiveness,' which makes you build up all sorts of edifices, — 'destructiveness,' which makes you tear all sorts of edifices down, — or 'fear,' which makes you avoid danger. To secure this advantage for students of education is one main purpose of the next nine chapters. chapter iii Inventories of the Original Nature of Man As a first step toward a reasonable estimate of man's orig- inal equipment, we may consider the summary of the special human insimcts which James ['93*] reported as the combined result of the work of previous writers (notably, W. Preyer, ['81] and G. H. Schneider ['80, '82]) and of his own observations. For convenience I repeat the list itself, where possible in James' own words, but for the detailed descriptions of each tendency the reader is referred to Chapter XXIV of James' Principles of Psychology.'^ James first quotes samples of the reflexes listed by Preyer,§ such as crying, sneezing, snuffling, snoring, coughing, sighing, sobbing, gagging, vomiting, hiccuping, starting, moving the limb in response to its being tickled, touched or blown upon, spreading the toes in response to being touched, tickled or stroked on the sole of the foot, extending and raising the arms at any sudden sensory stimulus, or the quick pulsation of the eyelid. Then follows his list and descriptions of the more com- plex original tendencies. Where possible I have summarized each description in one phrase for the situation (printed at the left of the page) and one for the response (printed at the right.) Where neither is described, I put (in the centre of the *First published, however, in a series of articles in 1887. tit should be noted that James does not pretend that this list is exhaus- tive or that his descriptions are precise, his interest being in demonstrating the vagueness, modifiability and wide range of human instincts, rather than in full enumeration or exact identification of the situations and responses concerned. It is, at all events, one of the best single lists available, and its- descriptions are much above the average in accuracy. § See The Senses and the Will, by W. Preyer (Eng. trans.), Chap. X. 16 INVENTORIES OF ORIGINAL NATURE I7 line and capitalized) the word or phrase used by James to describe the instinct as a whole. James' Inventory Sucking an object placed in the mouth , , .biting Chewing Grinding the teeth sugar licking a sweet taste a characteristic grimace a bitter taste a characteristic grimace Spitting out an object which touches the fingers or toes , . clasping an object seen at a dis- tance attempts to grasp it an object seen at a dis- tance pointing at it an object seen at a dis- tance -. making a peculiar sound expressive of desire an object grasped carrying it to the mouth bodily discomfort crying hunger crying pain crying being noticed smiling being fondled smiling being smiled at . smiling an object attended to protruding the lips Turning the head aside, frowning, bending back the body, and hokliiig the breath (these last three accompanying the first mentioned) Holding head erect Sitting up Standing Creeping Walking Climbing Cooing and gurgling 2 l8 THE ORIGINAL NATURE OF MAN hearing a sound imitating the sound seeing a gesture imitating a gesture Emulation or rivalry Pugnacity Anger Resentment the sight of suffering or danger to others interest and acts of relief "all living beasts, great and small toward which a contrary habit has not been found — all human beings in whom we perceive a certain intent toward us, and a large num- ber of human beings who offend us per- emptorily, either by their look, or gait, or by some circumstance in their lives which we dislike" hunting certain noises fear strange men fear strange animals fear certain kinds of vermin fear solitude (during infancy) fear black things fear dark places fear holes and corners fear high places fear certain ideas of super- natural agency fear a human corpse fear fear running fear remaining semi-paral- yzed fear trembling INVENTORIES OF ORIGINAL NATURE I9 Appropriation or acquisitiveness or the proprietary instinct any object which pleases attention, snatching any object which pleases attention, begging Envy Jealousy To form collections Constructiveness "whatever things are plastic to his hands he must" "remodel into shapes of his own" Habitation — "to make a sheltered nook, open on only one side" "when not altogether unenclosed" "he feels less exposed and more at home than when lying all abroad" Play "another boy who runs provokingly near" running after him "seeing another child pick up some object" trying to get it "someone trying to take an object away" trying to get away with it Love of festivities, ceremonies, and ordeals "concerted action as one of an organized crowd" excitement perceiving such a crowd "a tendency to join them and do what they are doing and an unwill- ingness to be the first to leave off and go home alone" Curiosity Movelty in any movable feature of the envir- onment being excited and irri- tated aO THE ORIGINAL NATURE OF MAN Sociability and shyness being alone discomfort meeting a stranger shyness Secretiveness "unfamiliar human be- ings, especially those whom we respect" "the arrest of whatever we are saying or do- ing. .. .coupled often with the pretense that we were not saying or doing that thing, but possibly some- thing different" love affairs to conceal them Qeanliness "excrementitious and putrid things, blood, pus, entrails and dis- eased tissues" repugnance Modesty, shame (?) Personal isolation Love between the sexes Coyness Parental love Indefiniteness in Descriptions of Original Tendencies This list, and still more so James' full account, should sug- gest at once the question, "How can the description of a ten- dency in human nature be so made as to ensure that all con>- petent students can from it identify the tendency — know what they are to look for or argue about?" For example, no one doubts the truth of the statement, "The tendency which we call curiosity is more or less instinctive," but also no one could learn from it just what is instinctive. Obviously, whether or not a tendency is unlearned, cannot be tested until one knows INVENTORIES OF ORIGINAL NATURE 21 what the tendency is well enough to observe whether it is present or not. Nor can a tendency be used in education or Other forms of social control until one knows what it itself is. The statement that 'Curiosity,' 'Rivalry,' 'Pugnacity,' and 'Con- structiveness' are original tendencies gives us more questions than ansvvers. The answer to the question is, of course, "By defining the tendenc}^ as a situation, a response and a degree of probability that apart from training the latter will happen when the former does." Suppose the statement about curiosity to be: "To the world in 'general, a child, apart from training, makes, much oftener than chance would allow, responses of — looking at, touching, tasting, manipulating and further sensory examina- tion. To new experiences, a child, apart from training, makes, much oftener than chance or other instincts would allow, re- sponses of feeling satisfaction and of doing nothing to avoid and something to continue or repeat the experiences." This statement, though far indeed from a model description, is much more suitable than the mere word 'curiosity' to guide ob- servation, thought and practice. Greater exactitude in the de- scription is to be got in the same way, by describing objectively further details of the situations, the responses, and their bonds. Often in James' list the response is described, at least in gross terms, such as 'weeping,' 'standing,' 'creeping,' 'follow- ing,' 'turning the head aside' or 'impersonating,' but the sit- uations are left quite unidentifiable. It is, of course, helpful to know that crying or turning the head aside are unlearned re- sponses, but it would be still more helpful to know at what children instinctively cry and from what objects they turn the head aside. Less often the situation is described, at least in gross terms, such as a 'sweet taste' or 'hearing a sound,' or 'the sight of blood,' but the responses are left unidentifiable. 'A characteristic grimace at a sweet taste,' though better than nothing, is hardly an adequate description. 'Imitating a sound heard' may mean anything from duplicating it to making a sound to some slight extent like it. 22 the original nature of man Criteria of the Probable Unlearnedness of a Tendency A second question suggested by James' account of human instincts is, 'Must we, in attempting to inventory original hu- man nature, either rely upon intuition or canvass every ob- served tendency and test it to see whether it is in whole or in part original? Qr are there guiding principles, fundamental facts, which at once rule out whole classes of tendencies and make it very probable that other whole classes of tendencies are original?' James apparently uses his own and other men's in- tuitions in limiting the field for examination and uses the cri- teria of universality, blindness (the absence of foreknowledge of the nature or consequences of the response) and automatic- ity as further tests.* In the light of the work that has been done since his time of writing, the following further principles of guidance are worth notice : 1. Any tendency to behavior characteristic of mammals in general has at least some likelihood of existing originally in man. For example, the tendencies to respond to 'a large ob- ject coming toward one rapidly' by 'going away from it' and to '3. small object going away from one slowly' by 'going after it,' characteristic of many mammals, should be an object of interest to observers of children. 2. Any tendency characteristic of the primates in gen- eral except man, has some likelihood of existence in man also. For example, the fact that the monkeys respond quite differ- ently to the situations 'object being clung to by them' and 'object holding on to them,' though the object be the same, suggests that in human behavior also the situation 'the mother' or *a familiar person' needs further definition. *It may be noted that neither universality, nor blindness nor automaticity is a sure test of the unlearnedness of a tendency. There is probably n» original tendency to keep out of love with one known to be the child of one's mother, yet that tendency is far more nearly universal than many that are demonstrably instinctive. A person in moving his eyes as in reading a book does not know in advance how far his eyes will move, nor, as he nears the end of the line, whether they will move on or back — much less what the result will be, yet the control of eye movements in reading is surely learned. Aut«- maticity, of course, ntay characterize habits which are very well learned. INVENTORIES OF ORIGINAL NATURE 23 3. A tendency, which, though not found in man's animal ancestors, can be shown to have been a probable result of likely variations of their original tendencies — to be in possible con- tinuity with their instincts — has thereby an increased possibil- ity of being instinctive. This principle is of little use in the present state of knowledge, since we do not know the exact line of our animal ancestors; nor, if we ^id, would we know the exact nature of their instinctive equipment. 4. Universality is not itself a proof of instinctiveness. But any widespread and easily inhibited tendency which is harmful or useless under the conditions of modern civilized life may be suspected of being original; men tend to learn unanimously only what is useful to any man and also easy to learn. It is to be remembered that these principles are not criteria for the unlearnedness of a tendency, but only for the wisdom of testing its presence. Man has undoubtedly lost some of the original tendencies (e. g., to respond to smells) characteristic of the mammals in general ; he may well have never acquired, or have lost, some of the tendencies characteristic of the pri- mates in general. Man's original nature is by no means that of an early mammal plus certain additions proper to an early primate, plus his specific contribution. There has been subtrac- tion as well as addition. Even if the evolution of human in- stincts had been merely a process of addition, the criteria from ancestry could be valid only to guide observation, not to decide facts, for the sufficient reason that no one knows what the in- stincts of either the early mammal or the early primate were. 5. McDougall ['08] suggests that if a tendency can be- come abnormally exaggerated without any general mental ab- normality, the tendency is probably original. "For it would seem that each instinctive disposition, being a relatively inde- pendent functional unit in the constitution of the mind, is cap- able of morbid hypertrophy or of becoming abnormally excit- able, independently of the rest of the mental dispositions and functions." ['08, p. 49.] 24 THE ORIGINAL NATURE OF MAN The negative principles of guidance are : 6. It is unlikely that the original connections are ever be- tween an idea and either another idea or a movement. No one has, I tliink, found satisfactory evidence that, apart from training, an idea leads of inner necessity to any one response. And there is good evidence to show that original connections are exclusively with sensory situations. In James' list, for instance, the only case where ideas are reported as the situations is the case of impersonating, or responding to the idea of an animal or object by mimicing it in action; and this case is surely doubtful. We have, of course, by original nature the capacities to connect the idea of one thing to the idea of another thing when the two have been in certain relations, and to break up the idea of a total fact into ideas of its elements, when once ideas have been given that are capable of such association and analysis. But we do not apparently, by original nature, have preformed bonds leading from ideas to anything. If ah idea apart from training provokes a response, it does so by virtue of its likeness to some sensory perception or emotion. Nor do we apparently by original nature respond to a situation by any one idea rather than another. That we think is due to original capacity to associate and analyze, but zvhat we think is due to the environmental conditions under which these ca- pacities Vvork. 7. It is unlilrely that an object or act produced by human learning — such as a pen, a typev^Titer, a printed or spoken word — should provoke to any responses peculiar to it. Prob- ably all unlearned responses to such objects are made in ac- cordance with the law of analogy tliat when any situation has no response connected with it, tlie response made will be that connected with the situation most like it. The school of investigators v/ho have paid tlie most atten- tion to the concrete study of man's original tendencies have often unhesitatingly assumed that man's experience with the results of his own learning has left traces of itself in his un- learned responses. To these investigators our seventh prin- INVENTORIES OF ORIGINAL NATURE 25 ciple will appear too strict. The justification of it against this criticism is to be made on the basis of the probability (to be discussed in Chapter XV) that the sources of original nature are not the learning of past generation^ but only the modifica- tions of their germs by inner variation. 8. It is unlikely that man v/ill have a number of responses, each limited to a sharply defined situation or group of situa- tions, in cases where one response to some feature of many situations, will, when aided by the laws of habit, serve as well. Thus, it would be unlikely that man should be endowed with hundreds of separate tendencies to move the arm and hand in grasping, each fitted to the position of the head, position of the eyes, retinal impression, degree of accommodation and degree of convergence aroused by an object at one particular direction and distance from the eyes. For the tendency to reach vaguely, plus the tendency to alter the extent and direc- tion of the reaching so long as the object remained untouched, plus the tendency to grasp in one way after another so long as the object remained unheld, would sufiice nearly as well. In escaping from the error of leaving an instinct described only by results as 'reaching for an object seen,' or 'grasping an object touched v/ith the finger or toes,' we must not make the opposite error of expecting nature to have provided a ready-made special outfit of reaching movements for each appropriate point of space seen, or a special outfit of grasping movements according to each part of the hand touched in each position which the hand may take. All of these criteria of probabilities are intrinsically of slight value compared with actual observations of how, apart from training, the human animal does respond to situations. If all men, or nearly all men, did, at their first experience of a piano or anything like a piano, play 'Yankee Doodle' upon it, we should know that, in the original constitution of man's nervous system, this highly improbable connection did exist. If children, when properly tested, do not make, apart from training, two different responses to objects a foot away and ^6 THE ORIGINAL NATURE OF MAN objects four feet away, we must deny the existence of an un- learned adaptation to distance, no matter how probable it seemed. But when, as is usually the case, the certainties of ob- served facts are lacking, these probabilities are helpful. They should be kept in mind throughout the discussions of the next nine chapters. chapter iv Sources of Information The special studies of unlearned tendencies in man which have been made since the publication of James's chapter on Instinct fall with few exceptions into two groups. One group comprises the direct observations of children, notably the biog- raphies of single infants, such as those by Preyer ['8i], Moore ['96], Mrs. W. S. Hall ['96, '97], Shinn ['93, '99], and G. V. N. Dearborn ['10]. In the other group are the collections of testimony about various features of human behavior made by Stanley Hall and his pupils. THE DISCOVERY OF ORIGINAL TENDENCIES BY SYSTEMATIC OBSERVATIONS OF CHILDREN Observers of infants have rarely so arranged the circum- stances of the infant's life that his behavior in even the few most interesting cases could be surely referred to original na- ture on the one hand or to acquired connections on the other. They have in fact contented themselves as a rule with narrating that he did so and so at such a time. And no one of them since Preyer has attempted to inventory the unlearned tenden- cies manifested by infants in general or by one infant in particular. The task of demonstrating the unlearnedness or learned- ness of even a single tendency is an intricate one. To find out even approximately what the original tendency to respond is in the case of the situation, 'a garter snake seen,' it would be necessary to present that situation to children who had been carefully kept from any experience of a snake or anything like 27 28 THE ORIGINAL NATURE OF MAN a snake. Since the instinct might, though real, be delayed and transitory, it would be necessary to do this with many different children, some at one age, some a week or so older, some still older, and so on. Since original nature might furnish connec- tions between 'a. garter snake seen crawling toward one on the ground' and a certain response and still not connect 'a garter snake held in the hand of a familiar satisfaction-giving human intimate' with any such response, it would be necessaiy to de- fine the concomiitants of the 'garter snake seen' iti various ways, and to experiment with each, before denying tlie exist- ence of, say, an original avoiding reaction. Moreover, the scientific biographies of infants since Preyer have been much more interested in deciding W'hether the be- havior witnessed gave evidence of this or that conscious ele- ment than in deciding whether it was unlearned or learned. A systematic enumeration of every statement that a ten- dency was unlearned or instinctive in five of the more elaborate biographies, since Preyer's, yields very meagre returns for our purpose. I shall therefore not rehearse by themselves the scattered facts about the original nature of man to be gleaned from these histories of infants. They will be used, together with such observations as I have been able to make, in the provisional inventory of instincts and capacities which will be given in the next eight chapters. THE DISCOVERY OF ORIGINAL TENDENCIES BY A CENSUS OF OPINIONS During the past twenty years Stanley Hall, and many stu- dents under his direction, have surveyed concrete human be- havior over a wide range, summarizing the existing facts and opinions, seeking testimony by distributing printed questions, describing the gist of the testimony and adding opinions based upon it, and upon their own general experiences of human na- ture. The interest of these students has not been confined to the question of what in human behavior is unlearned, but that question has been prominent in the minds of the more thought- SOURCES OF INFORMATION 29 ful and in the mind of the director of the work it has often been primary. In subject matter these studies further encourage the hope that they will tell how human beings respond to various fun- damental situations apart from learning, — what elements in their behavior are original. For among them are reports of what the responses of human beings, especially children, are to water, trees, clouds, dogs, dolls, the moon, puzzles and other important groups of situations ; and of what the situations are which provoke such important responses as fear, anger, love, pity, teasing, bullying, collecting, laughter, curiosity, rivalry, and jealousy. The value of whatever answers these studies give v/ill depend upon the methods of collecting and treating evidence which they use. In this respect they show certain notable peculiarities. In particular, their material is, almost without exception, not direct observation, but either the answers writ- ten in reply to a printed list of cjuestions or the papers written by school children as a school exercise in response to some cjues- tion or suggestion. I quote from one of the best known of these studies* at sufficient length to' give a rough idea of the method in its more successful application. Some of the cjuestions asked were : "Groivth generally. When was growth in height or weight greatest? Was this period of growth attended by better or de- ranged health? Give any details, as to how much, where, how long, etc. General Health, then and noiv. If imperfect, how, respecting eyes, nerves, head, stomach, etc. ? Was sleep or dreams, or appe- tite for food affected? Changes of Form and Feature. Did chin, nose, cheek-bone, brow, chest, hair, and other features change, and how? Was there a different facial expression? New resemblances? To whom ? Senses and Thought. Are the senses keener, wider ranged? More engrossing? Is there a change from sense to thought; ♦Lancaster's 'Psychology and Pedagogy of Adolescence,' Pedagogical Seminary, Vol. V., pp. 61-128. 30 THE ORIGINAL NATURE OF MAN from the present to the future ; the near to the far ? What new ideals, abstract or personal ? Language. Was it harder or easier to express oneself, and was there a dumb, bound feeling? Was truth-telling harder or easier? Future. Were careers, plans, vocations, trades, etc., dwelt upon Home. Did the attractiveness of home diminish, and was there a tendency to be out, go far away, strike out for self, seek new associations and friends? Should home be left part of the time? Parents and Family. Did parental influence decline? How differently were father and mother, brother, sister, and other relatives regarded? Parental authority, punishments? School. Was there a disposition to leave school, change stud- ies or teachers, defy authority, or to feel more deeply studies, punishments and discipline?" The author gives in every case of importance samples of the replies. For instance, from the replies to the question about careers, plans, vocations, etc., he quotes the following: "F., i8. As a child I dreamed much of the future. Wanted to to be a musician, elocutionist, artist, milliner, bookkeeper, dress- maker and a school-teacher. Have often desired to be as beautiful in character as Christ himself. F., 24. One of the greatest pleasures of my life has been to make plans and map out an ideal career. F., 20. Planned to teach in my early childhood. At 13 I began to declare it, and after much discussion my wish was granted, and I began to prepare for it, to my great delight. M., 50. Nothing is more intense and vivid than my plans for the future. One scene. A high hill with bald summit. Had been blamed for something and went to that peak. Alone there I had a very deep and never-to-be-forgotten experience. I paced back and forth and said : 'Now I will, / WILL, make people like me, and / WILL do something in the world.' I called everything to witness my vow. F., 23. My plans for the future were all for literary fame. School aroused my ambition and for three successive years I took essay prizes. M., 18. I look to the future. Think of myself as teaching, reading law, at the bar, in legislature, an active speaker always taking the side of right and denouncing wrong. I have had many ideals, one to be a minister. F., 19. I often think of the future and wonder what it has in SOURCES OF INFORMATION 31 Store for me. I sometimes wish that ten years would pass in a night. M., 19. Planned his future and painted it with the tints of the seashell. F., 19. In mind I have planned the first day of school and gone through it many, many times. At one time I wanted to be a trained nurse. I pictured myself among the patients and how I would act in an operation. Then how I would study abroad and get a fine position." He also discusses each topic in a general way. The follow- ing is his presentation of facts and conclusions, with reference to the attitude of adolescents toward home, parents and family : "403 answered the question regarding home. 253 — 153 M., 100 F., had a desire to leave home and strike out for themselves or found home less attractive. 150 — ^29 M., 121 F., had no desire to leave home. 107 thought that home should be left a part of the time, 20 thought it should not. As to parents and family, 281 replied. 99 — 33 M., 66 F., said said parental influence did decline, while 181 — 35 M., 146 F., found their parents just as dear and obeyed them as readily as in diildhood. 100 — 32 M., 68 F., felt a disposition to leave school or did leave for a while during this period. 192 — 98 M., 94 F., had no such feeling. It must be borne in mind that these returns were mostly from normal school, high school, academy and college students, a majority of whom were away from home when they wrote. 75 — 34 M., 41 F., say that punishment was felt much more deeply. i8 — 9 M., 9 F., experienced no change. This gives a very true picture of the feelings of young people toward home, school, and authority at this period of life, because the answers were given under conditions allowing free speech and favoring home, parents and school. It is a very forcible illustra- tion of the fact that a boy or girl from 12 to 18 is fully conscious of personality and the rights of individual recognition. This feeling that home is shut in and the desire to get away and travel, to see for oneself and form new associations, is an kistinct as old as the race and common to all animal life. It is like the migratory instinct of birds. It may spring up suddenly with the most obedient and well-bred children. It is not a sign of degeneration or of less love for the home or parents. It is often associated with the most intense love of home and family. The feeling is strongest at 16 to 18 or about the time of the final approach to maturity. 32 THE ORIGINAL NATURE OF MAN The sudden feeling of rebellion against authority, which often surprises the child as much as the parent, is another instinctive habit of the race. These crop out in the best children, sometimes with a violence that shocks ever^-body. It is not necessarily a bad sign, unless frequently repeated. The desire to leave school, together with the desire to leave home, is a true and natural impulse to adjust himself to the life which he is already living in his imagination in company with his ideals. Sympathy, not punishment, is the proper corrective." The method is thus one of general inquiry, selection from the replies, and naive acceptance of them at their face-value. Its trustworthiness will vary with the topic, tlie questions, the answers, and the examiner of the answers. Some general principles, however, are sure and may guide us in estimating the worth of the method in any single case. First of all, the ignorance of a thousand people is no better than that of one; truth cannot be manufactured from constant errors by getting a great number of them. For instance, from scoring up re- ' plies to the question, 'When did your child first reason ?' we do not necessarily learn anything about the date of appearance of reasoning, but only about opinions of people as to that date. From scoring up replies to the suggestion, 'Describe some miser of your acquaintance,' we attain knowledge, not necessarily of misers, but of what our correspondents notice or think they have noticed in some obvious types of miserliness. No re- search can ever attain a reliability beyond that possessed by the data with which it starts. And the first duty of any study of individual responses to questions or suggestions is to measure their reliability as measures of the trait in question. Adults even so well trained as college seniors and even in the simplest matters of present objective fact such as are involved in the questions, 'How tall are you?' and 'V\^hat is the circumference of your sister's head?', make gross errors. The errors increase in number and amount when the report requires memory; in- crease further when the fact is a report of subjective condition ; and multiply like bacilli when it involves the consideration of the general drift of a series of experiences. Again, no matter SOURCES OF INFORMATION 33 how clearly the question is put, some individuals misunder- stand it. Finally, any question acts as a suggestion and with uncritical minds will surely produce affirmative answers. There are means of avoiding man}^ of these errors and recognizing and allowing for many of the others. But these means have not been used in the investigations under discus- sion. We can feel but little confidence in a method which pre- tends to secure truth from using at their face-value the an- swers of young people in normal schools to such questions as the following: Have liberalizing theological opinions made you better or worse, and how? Fed. Sent., Vol. V'., p. 8. What is your own temperament? Ibid., p. 13. Has your belief in imm.ortality been an unfoldment of your nature or is it the result of parental influence, scriptural teaching, observation of natural phenomena, loss of friends in death, or your own inability to conceive your existence as coming to an end ? Fed. San., Vol. VL, p. 287. What effect has [^'V] a new overcoat, high hat, high heels, ribbons, plumes, bright-buttoned uniforms, articles of jewelry, buttons, badges, etc., upon the self-confidence, self-assertiveness and personality of the owner? Ibid., p. 430. What force and motive led you to seek a higher and better life? Am. J. of Fsy., Vol. VHL, p. 269. What do you know of beggars ? Their habits, laws, customs ? Fed Sent., Vol. VI., p. 431. What studies have best developed your memory? Am. J. of Fsy., Vol. X., p. 229. Can blood pressure be tested ? Am. J. of Fsy., Vol. X., p. 529. In the second place the facts reported by individuals who respond to sets of printed questions need not, and commonly will not, represent the true state of affairs in the group osten- sibly studied. Psychological questionnaires are commonly sent to 'those interested' or to classes in normal schools, and answered by only a limited number of those who receive them — namely, by the individuals to whom the questions especially appeal and who have somicthing to report, or by those who answer them as an academic task. The replies thus represent an extremely partial sampling of people in general. More- over, of those who do reply, either from zeal or as a matter of 3 34 THE ORIGINAL NATURE OF MAN school work, only a small number answer all the questions. In the case of any one question, then, we get answers from very few, probably from those who have a positive or emphatic answer. We can be sure beforehand that these replies will not give a representation of the facts that really exist in the total group. Here again it would be possible to correct the bias of the replies from such a selected group by the study of fifty or a hundred individuals chosen quite at random. But this has never been done. For instance, in the case of the study already quoted, there were received about five hundred replies from classes in normal schools, colleges and academies, and about three hundred re- plies from individuals. The group of students certainly does not represent the general population. How the three hundred were selected we are not told, nor what proportion they were of the total number to whom the questions were sent. There was not a single question asked in the list that was answered by all of the 787* whose replies are the basis of the article. Out of the total number for each sex the following numbers (in percentages) replied to the different questions which the author discusses. Each number is the percentage that the nimiber of answers to some one question was to the number replying to the questions as a whole. Question. Males. Females. I 17.0 28.9 2 40.2 48.9 3 13-2 35-5 4 13-2 14.8 5 10.3 17-5 6 19.9 35-2 7 23.6 20.7 8 29.1 55.4 9 72.7 48.0 10 53.4 49.6 II 19.9 47 -r, 12 24.6 193 13 34-7 53 9 Question. Males. Females. 14 II. 4 II. 7 15 16 29.3 15-0 41-5 22.8 17 499 77.1 18 19 97-4 85.6 97.3 68.6 20 21 105.0 63.1 77.1 63.2 22 23 74.2 81.2 54.7 64.8 24 72.4 61.9 25 44.9 5I-I *The author does not even take pains to make this number clear. In one place we read, '827 (replies) have been received . . . these answers have been grouped and condensed and the results will be given' (p. 67), and two pages later we read : '341 males and 446 females answered part or all of it' (the syllabus of questions). My percentages are based on this second statement, to avoid any possibility of injustice. From the fact that one percentage thus computed is 105, I regard it as likely that the 827 is correct and that mjr percentages are even too large by 5 per cent. SOURCES OF INFORMATION 35 •These percentages range from 10.3 to 105 for males and from II. 7 to 97.3 for females. The averages are: Males, 44; females, 47. The variabilities {A. D.) are 24.7 and 16.8. There are marked sex differences in the number replying, the extremes being, women 66 per cent, as many replies as men and 269 per cent, as many. These facts demonstrate that chance is not the cause for the number of replies and failures to reply and that some real principles of selection do determine them. It is incredible that the 85 per cent, of men who do not answer at all the question, 'Were there impulses to reform self, others, religion, state, society, etc?' had the same feelings about the matter at adolescence as the 15 per cent, who did answer, and of whom practically all (approximately 97 per cent.) say, 'Yes.' The probability indeed is that of the 85 per cent, few or none had felt such impulses to any noticeable ex- tent and that the real affirmatives amongst the 341 males replying to the question should be reckoned at from 15 to 20 per cent. This percentage calculated from the interested and from academic students would be further reduced if mechanics, day laborers, clerks and the rest of the youth of the land were studied. The figures for the girls are of the same order of magnitude. Yet the author says : 'This feeling ... is very characteristic of adolescence.' I have attempted to make an estimate of the partiality of the sampling in these studies as a whole by computing from all such articles in the volumes of the American Journal of Psy- chology and Pedagogical Seminary from 1896 to 1900, the pro- portion that the number of individuals replying is of the num- ber of individuals questioned, and the proportion that the number of answers to each question is of the numbers of individuals replying to the questionnaire as a whole. Such an estimate cannot be made because the ignorance or neglect of the fallacy of unfair selection of individuals for report has been so great that only one article in the eight volumes gives clearly the number of individuals questioned, and not even one gives full 36 THE ORIGINAL NATURE OF MAN information regarding the number of replies received to each de- tailed question. Some do not even give the number of individ- uals replying to the questions as a whole. In the one case where the number of those questioned is given, less than one sixth replied (15.67 per cent.). In the third place, the use of replies to questions and of school compositions involves the exercise of much personal opinion as to the meaning of each report. Different individ- uals will differ somewhat even in their measurement of a line, will differ markedly in their estimate of the intelligence shov/n in any test, and would certainly differ in their rating of the replies to such complex and subtle questions as many of those on page 30, or of the school compositions on similar top- ics. The statements finally used to inspire conclusions are thus a compound of the actual reports and the subjective bias of the compiler. This could be avoided by the simple expedient of having several unbiased clerks go over the papers. By combining their opinions one could eliminate personal idiosyn- crasies of judgment. This has not been done. In the fourth place the progress from a set of statements \ about individuals to a statement about a group including them ! is by no means a matter of simple addition. There is a fairly complex science of mental statistics which has been found necessary to keep students out of pitfalls. Failure to take advantage of it is always a suspicious characteristic in any method of studying groups. Conclusions about the facts studied only indirectly through the reports of incompetent observers, in the case of individuals representing a partial and undefined selection, compiled by a single and possibly prejudiced student, without the knowledge of the technique and logic of statistics, are unreliable. They may be true; they may be false; they are probably a mixture. But we cannot know how true or false they are. In spite of these criticisms, and others whose justice Presi- Ident Hall and other leaders in this type of" investigation would readily admit, the fact remains that we are here dealing with SOURCES OF INFORMATION 37 reports which at least try to find out what human nature is in its rich concrete details, and which have been made by serious students under the direction of a psychologist of genius. Respect for their aim if not for their results, and for his ability if not for his method, requires due consideration for these reports. It would be futile to pass these reports by because they lack careful experimentation upon human instincts, for so do practically all others. They have therefore been searched for observations and opinions concerning the unlearned tendencies of man. Any definite statements which they contain as to what is, in the opinion of the author in question, unlearned in human fears, sympathies, plays, behavior toward water, stones, trees, clouds, flowers and the like, will, as a rule, be quoted unless it is demonstrably based on an improper use of testimony. They will be cjuoted very rarely, however, for the simple reason that in all their thousands of pages there are very, very few definite statements as to what, after all, is instinctive in the behavior in question. A student reads hundreds of reports of the be- havior of children toward dogs, for example, but at the end is unable to say whether children of any assigned age, apart from experience, do or do not run from, or go to, dogs. OTHER SOURCES Besides the biographies of children and the censuses of anecdotes and opinions made by Stanley Hall's pupils, there are observations and discussions of varying degrees of merit scattered throughout the literature of biology, psychology, anthropology, sociology and education. These have been util- ized so far as I have found them. Such observations of chil- dren as have been reported by such deliberate students of original nature as James ['93], Robinson ['91, '93, '94], Cooley ['02], Kirkpatrick ['03], and McDougall ['08] are specially deserving of attention from any reader who wishes to test critically the account given in this volume. There is a possibility that critical examination of the 38 THE ORIGINAL NATURE OF MAN reports of the behavior of primitive groups would disclose orig^ inal tendencies which are masked by the artificial situations, or overgrown by the acquired habits, of more civilized life. It must be borne in mind, however, that even the most primitive races lead lives w^hose situations are in large measure consti- tuted by the customs of the tribe, the presence of tools, and other products of learning, and that in many respects they early acquire habits so remote from original nature as effectually to conceal it. The sex instincts, for example, seem to be re- directed by almost as elaborate a network of customs in their case as in ours. The detailed reports of travelers and field- workers I have consulted only very casually. The standard summaries of primitive man's behavior, especially any accounts of his behavior in childhood, I have examined, but with slight results in the shape of definite evidence or judgments about unlearned tendencies. I regret that I have been unable to go through the detailed reports^ concerning particular tribes. The statements made about man's original tendencies in such sociological books and short reports as I have examined are rarely suitable for direct use here. The distinction be- tween inherent and acquired traits is rarely made a prime con- sideration by their authors. The student of the concrete facts of human nature will, however, get many hints concerning the probable original equipment of capacities and direction of in- terests from the matter^-of-fact sociologists. He will also enrich his general sense of human nature greatly. The literature of animal behavior is, of course, funda- mental, as a means of understanding the general features of un- learned tendencies, their place in nature, their physiological basis, and their development up to man. There will be few quotations from this literature because the original nature of man only is the present topic, but I trust that my descrip- tions of human instincts and capacities everywhere rest on a proper knowledge and appreciation of comparative psychology. In spite of efforts to do full justice to what has been written on human instincts, I must frankly confess that nothing beyond SOURCES OF INFORMATION 39 my own personal observation and reflection can be advanced to support the great majority of the statements which consti- tute the inventory and description of man's original nature given in the following chapters. THE INSECURITY OF PRESENT INFORMATION It would perhaps be wiser to abandon the effort to define man's original responses and the situations to which they are bound. There would probably be an enormous range within even expert opinion about which the original responses are to even such common situations as cats, dogs, water, fire, thunder, lightning or the dark. It is then clearly impossible to guarantee the accuracy of any inventory that anyone could now make. The facts have not been studied long enough or by careful enough methods. Moreover, as one tries to come to some conclusion about this or that tendency, he finds, as has been hinted already, almost insuperable obstacles in the artificiality of modern life, the possible transitoriness of the original tendencies, and their inhibition or immediate trans- formation by acquired tendencies. A modern home in a modern community eliminates alto- gether many of the situations to which original human nature would probably show clean-cut responses and modifies almost all those which it does not eliminate. Civilization is to the original nature of man as a species somewhat as a European capital would be to the habits of an Eskimo. The infer- ence from his behavior in Paris to what his ordinary life had been would be complicated and unsafe; so with the inference from what babies do in nurseries, children in schools and men in industry, sport and politics, to what their original tenden- cies were. If a tendency persists over several years, as do the in- stincts of sex or the readiness to start, shrink and be afraid in the dark, it may show itself, at least in a distorted and com- plicated form. But if it passes after a brief epoch of efficiency, it may, under the conditions of modern life, never show itseli 40 THE ORIGINAL NATURE OF MAN at all. Thus the tendency to climb and perch in trees seems to be original in man, but does not show itself at all univer- sally in city children. The writer has some reason to think that retrieving is instinctive with children for a brief period in the second or third year. The fact that no one else has re- corded the possibility would in this case be of little weight, for, under ordinary conditions today, possibly not one child in four has, during its brief ascendency, any chance to display it. After the first half-year or less, original nature and nurture cooperate almost inextricably. By the time that an original tendency is ripe its situation may already have acquired bonds with other responses than those nature provides. Thus, al- though for many reasons it seems fairly certain that being alone in the dark is objectionable to the original nature of chil- dren from say three to eight, children of that age who have hitherto been consistently kept comfortable when alone in the dark may seem to show just the opposite. An original tendency may also have been subdued by mere lack of exercise, or by having its exercise result in discom- fort, or in some symbol for or warning of discomfort. Thus, it is almost certain that the original response toward a live chicken is, if one is hungry, to chase, capture and devour it, but it is almost equall}^ certain that not one ten-year-old in a hundred in New York City would so respond. An original tendency may also, though preserved in part, be amended into behavior from which it can be analyzed out only by an elaborate study of life-histories and acute inference from what experience has done to what there was at the start for experience to vv'ork on. Thus, the personal adornment and display of young people is doubtless ultimately traceable to original tendencies, but just what those tendencies comprise can be figin-ed out only by subtracting the effects of centuries of traditional millinery, warfare, and rom.antic conventions. Lack of observations of human behavior and the difficulty in interpreting the facts that have been observed which is the consequence of a civilized environment, the transitoriness of SOURCES OF INFORMATION 4I instincts and the early incessant and intimate interaction of nature and nurture, thus baffle the cataloguer of original tendencies. The need for an inventory of man's original nature, how- ever, is very great. It is needed as a basis, not only for educa- tional, but also for economic, political, ethical and religious theories. Indeed, all the sciences of human nature, from med- icine to literary criticism, demand of the psychologist an ac- curate account of how, apart from all training, man would re- spond to all possible situations. The physician should know whether original nature lets a child eat too much and chew it not enough; the criminologist should know the relative shares of nature and nurture in the production of assault or theft; the statesman should know how far the efforts of men to gain wealth are rooted in an instinctive love of possession — of property as such — and how far they are caused by the love of generalized power; the student of religion inquires v/hether there are, apart from training, any tendencies to respond to the world-spirit. Let it be admitted that the inventory to be given here is only a probable one, — that the writer's personal judgment, possibly his mere intuition, is often the final cause for admit- ting a tendency as original or excluding it as a product of learning, — and that almost every statement that will be made is more properly a question for investigation than a doctrine to be assumed true in the social control of children and men. Even so provisional an account is likely to be superior to the extravagances and superstitions in which edu- cational theories and so-called common sense abounds. So I offer it for whatever it may be worth. For the reader's con- venience this inventory of original nature will be presented for the most part dogmatically. Any adequate discussion of the evidence for and against each item, of it would sim^ply burden him in each case with a mass of observations and opinions of all degrees of relevance and merit, the sublimation of which into a definite probability would be intolerably tedious. The 42 THE ORIGINAL NATURE OF MAN reader will, I beg, remember that in spite of this dogmatic form, the statements to be made are only the best answers the writer can give to questions which science at present should perhaps ask rather than answer at all. Finally, the inventory to be given here makes no pretence of completeness. On the contrary, it is limited definitely to the aim of giving a general sense of what may be expected of man's original nature, such as is needed to guide educational theory and practice. chapter v Responses of Sensitivity, Attention and Gross Bodily Control The arrangement of my inventory will be modified from that which a strictly scientific classification would suggest, so as to fit the reader's convenience, and to make connections with the treatment of instincts and capacities in present psycho- logical literature. Ideally the arrangement should be according to some rational grouping of the situations life offers, or of the responses which men can make. I have only very roughly approximated the latter sort of arrangement, the various ten- dencies to connect situation and response which I list* being grouped according to the responses in question, as : — those resulting in sensitivities those resulting in attention those resulting in gross bodily control those resulting in food'-getting and habitation those resulting in fear, fighting and anger those resulting in human intercourse those resulting in satisfaction and discomfort those resulting in minor bodily movements and cerebral con- nections those resulting in the emotions and their expression those resulting in consciousness, learning and remembering *Certain events connect, apart from all training, with movements of man's body which are fully explained by mechanics or hydrostatics, such as a baby's falling when it is dropped, or being squeezed when sat upon. Such connections whereby the animal acts in the same way, whether alive or dead, will of course not be considered here. Nor will the connections of which current physiology already gives an account, such as the knee-jerk, the contraction of the pupil in bright light, the absorption of oxygen by the red blood-corpuscles, and the Mke. 43 44 THE ORIGINAL NATURE OF MAN This grouping will not be rigidly adhered to, and in at least one case, the connections leading to responses of social intercourse, the group is as truly of connections leading* from the behavior of other human beings. SENSORY CAPACITIES To certain situations man responds originally by special changes in the first sensory neurones and, through these, by special changes in other neurones. He is thus affected by the situation 'a certain substance in touch with the olfactory mem- brane' as he is not by the situation 'that substance in touch with his fingers.' To the general pressure, absorption of heat and what not that the substance causes in both cases, there are added, in the former case, special effects, notably the excitement of certain neurones giving the sensation of smell. '^- Well-known illustrations of original tendencies to sensitivity are the capaci-' ties to receive special impressions via the cones of the retina from light waves of 450 to 750 million million vibrations per second, that are not received from those of 350 million million vibrations (the infra-red) ; and to be influenced by air waves of 30 to 30,000 vibrations per second as one is not by air waves of 50,000 and over per second, and tlie like. All the remain- ing original tendencies hang by these tendencies to be sensi- tive to certain situations in ways in which a stone, a drop of water, or a potato-plant is not. Sensitivity, or impressibilit}^ or receptivity, is the necessary preliminary to attention, ap- proach, flight, and all other features of original intellect and character. It must not be supposed that the neurone-action which is set up by a given stimulus in touch with a given sense- organ in a trained adult can fairly be taken as that by which he would have responded to the same situation originally, r Even in sensory capacities original and eventual nature differ."^) The states of consciousness which vil^rations of the ether of a given rate, or the air-vibrations caused by a given tuning fork, or the presence on the tip of the tongue of a tiny drop SENSITIVITY^ ATTENTION AND BODILY CONTROL 45 of saturated salt-solution, and the like, provoke by their orig- inal connections are probably very unlike the states of con- sciousness which the trained analytical psychologist knows. The latter does not, by attending to one after another feature of the sensed world, eliminate the results of acquired connections. On the contrary, his analysis itself occurs precisely by acquiring new connections. The overtone which one hears along with the fundamental, after training in getting it separately and in listening for it in the complex, is created by forming, with a part of the stimulus, connections which that part originally lacked and so letting it produce a consciousness which it did not originally produce. The original capacities of sensation do not give us the clear sounds, colors, pressures, degrees of heat and cold, and the like, in which long experience has taught us to feel the world. To get an idea of the vvay the world would be sensed apart from training, we must subtract all that we know about it, and all the definite 'things,' 'qualities' and 'relations' which have, in the course of training, been analyzed out of the flux of gross sensations. We must take as types, the sensations which an adult psychologist gets from suffocation, heart-burn, itching or nausea rather than those which he gets from a black dot, a lOO-vibration tuning fork, or a band of spectral light. For educational theory and practice, indeed, it is often more instructive to consider what is not original in human sen- sitiveness to events than what is. That 'dead' and 'bead' are seen by an adult reader as- they are not by the beginner; that >' does not look the same to one who cannot add or count as it does to us; that the separate tones in a chord may not be heard by original nature — such facts as these are the most significant results which a student of education gets from sur- veying sensory capacities. Just as the training of the expert musician makes him hear a symphony as the beginner does not, or as the expert tea-taster has acquired tastes which the same objects once did not give, — so training in reading, mathematics and geography makes a pupil see letters, words, 46 THE ORIGINAL NATURE OF MAN geometrical forms, magnitudes, collections, maps and photo- graphs anew; and so the general training of infancy changes the original perceptions in response to the different vibration- rates of light, degrees of temperature, or amplitudes of sound waves. With this caution the student is referred to the standard accounts of the physiology and psychology of the sensory ca- pacities for details concerning what outside events are 'sensed' by man and what events in his sense-organs and associated neurones correspond to this 'sensing.' ORIGINAL ATTENTIVENESS Of the situations to which man is sensitive some originally excite the further responses — of disposing him, especially his sense organs and central nervous system, to be more em- phatically impressed thereby — which we call responses of at- tention to the situations in question. Thus, he moves his head and eyes so that the light rays from a bright-colored object moving across the visual field are kept upon or near the spot of clear vision. The features which are so selected for special influence upon man vary with sex and age, but are substan- tially covered by the rule that man is originally attentive (i) to sudden change and sharp contrasts and (2) to all the situor- tions to zvhicJi he has further tendencies to respond, as by flight, pursuit, repulsion, play and the like. Since, as will be seen in the following chapters, man has tendencies to respond to an enormous range of situations by visual exploration, manipulation, curiosity and experimenta- tion, his attentiveness is omnivorous to an extent not ap- proached by any other animals save the monkeys, and far from equalled by them. Very early the human infant devotes a large fraction of his waking hours to watching what is and happens in his neighborhood. When he gains control of reaching and grasping he examines what he can move. When he gains power to move about, he attends to almost every object that he can get to until its possibilities as a stimulus to manipula- SENSITIVITY^ ATTENTION AND BODILY CONTROL 47 tion and experimentation are exhausted. In the meantime, parts of his own body and the sounds that he and the persons and things about him make have been selected from t"he total medleys in which they inhere by the preparation of the sense- organs, and perhaps of the neurones associated therewith, to be stimulated by this or that sight or sound or touch. One is tempted to assert that man is originally attentive to everything until its novelty wears off. But certain notable lacks show that original attentiveness is the sum of many par*- ticular tendencies and not an indifferent general capacity. For example, man lacks the attentiveness to small differences in smells, or small intrusions of new smells into a familiar medley, which is so characteristic of many mammals. GROSS BODILY CONTROL How far man's management of his body in holding up his head, sitting, standing, walking, running, stooping, jumping up, jumping down, leaping at, crouching, lying down, rolling over, climbing, dodging, stooping to pick up, raising oneself again, balancing, clinging, pushing with arms and with legs, pulling with arms, and in such other movements of position, locomotion and the displacement of large objects as man has in common with the primates in general, is unlearned, is still a disputed question. Reputable opinion can be cited in support of remote extremes. It appears to the writer that the contribution from training is slight, that these accomplishments are in origin much more like breathing, winking or sucking, than like playing tennis, dancing or swimming. The case of walking is instructive. Here, although, under the conditions of civilized family life, children appear to learn, or even to be taught, to walk, it has been shown that the appearance is illusory.* The baby's trials with varying and increasing success are not the causes of a habit, but the symptoms of a waxing instinct. The parent's *See, for example, Kirkpatrick ['03], pp. 79-81: Trettien ['oo], p. 42; Woodworth ['03], p. 315. 48 THE ORIGINAL NATURE OF MAN tuition does not create a tendency, but only stimulates or re- wards it. How easily a clear case of unlearnedness may remain un- observed is shown by the now well-known clinging reaction of the infant in the first week of life. The facts as described by Robinson, who first noted this instinct, are typical : "Finding myself placed in a position in which material was abundant, and available for reasonable experiment, I com- menced a series of systematic observations with the purpose of finding out what proportion of young infants had a notice- able power of grip, and what was the extent of the power. I have made now records of upwards of sixty cases in which the children were under a month old, and in at least half of these the experiment was tried within an hour of birth. The results as given below are, as I have already indicated, both curious and unexpected. "In every instance, with only two exceptions, the child was able to hang on to the finder or a small stick three-quarters of an inch in diameter by its hands, like an acrobat from a hor- izontal bar, and sustain the whole weight of its body for at least ten seconds. In twelve cases, in infants under an hour old, half a minute passed before the grasp relaxed, and in three or four nearly a minute. When about four days old I found that the strength had increased, and that nearly all, when tried at this age, could sustain their weight for half a minute." ['91, p. 837 f.] It must be remembered further that gradualness in appear- ing and imperfections in early manifestations are entirely con- sistent with unlearnedness. The 'perfecting' of a tendency may come from the mere inner growth that time implies as well as from exercise and tuition. Thus the reactions of run- ning, crouching and chirring by chicks when a large object is thrown at them are surely unlearned but develop gradually. The reactions of roosters in combat are surely unlearned but are at the start so 'imperfect' that unless one traces their be- havior continuously he will hardly even recognize the early manifestations. (These are that two chicks, as young even as six days, will suddenly rush at each other, face each other for SENSITIVITY, ATTENTION AND BODILY CONTROL 49 a moment and then go about their previous business.) 'Im- perfection' at the start and graduahiess in development are the rule rather than the exception with all original tendencies. I judge therefore that children gain power to manage their bodies in connection with the movements listed above, as re- quired by the ordinary exigencies of an animal-like life in the woods, largely by,the inner development of original tendencies.* Just how largely cannot be said. I do not assert that man, or any of the mammals, would manage his body as well without experience as with it, or that all the gross bodily manipula- tions listed are as well developed by original nature as walking is. But the notion that these activities develop by trial and success and imitation wholly, or Avith slight assistance from some very indefinite 'predispositions,' does seem indefensible as an account of their causation in the children whom I have had opportunity to observe. The 'predispositions' can, on the contrary, be relied on to produce the behavior with a ver}?- small amount of assistance from the pains of stumbling, falling, going in the wrong- direction and the like, and v/ith no assist- ance at all from imitation. Darwin long ago noted that 'everyone protects himself when falling to the ground by extending his arms' ['72, p. 31]. Moore ['96], observed that a child who had never fallen or been hurt through lack of support nevertheless clutched the person holding him when the wagon lurched or when he was lifted during sleep. A child very early changes an object from one hand to anotlier, stoops and stands up, and the like, so far as one can see, by original coordinations. It is my prophecy that very many such original powers of bodily control will be found by proper experimentation. *If this is the fact, the customary incitements of the mn"ery are largely useless and possibly harmful. So also with many of the maternal precautions against childish adventures in locomotion. chapter vi Food Getting, Protective Responses, and Anger FOOD getting Eating. — Of the early suckling and seeking the breast, and the various original responses to objects once they are in the mouth, nothing need be said here, save that sucking move- ments at a sweet taste, separating the posterior portions of the tongue and palate at a bitter taste, spitting and letting drool out of the mouth at very sour, very salt, acrid, bitter, and oily objects, and turning the head to one side in rejection of food when satiated, are partial foundations of the bodily expressions of enjoyment and disgust in general. Reaching, grasping and putting into the mouth deserve more consideration here because of the knowledge of the external world to which they lead. Reaching is not a single instinct, but includes at least three somewhat different responses to three very different situations. First, to the situation 'not being closely cuddled,' there is, in young infants, the tendency to respond by reaching and clutching, especially when any element of agitation is added to the situation. Second, to the situation, 'an object attended to and approximately within reaching dis- ance,'* there is the tendency to reach, maintaining the exten- *It has generally been assumed that man has to learn to respond appropriately to distance — .that, for example, a child will reach for the moon as readily as for a similar bright object a foot or so away. But I am unable to verify this opinion. Of perhaps fifty observant parents whom I have questioned, not one could be sure that his children ever reached for the moon. The apparent cases of children reaching for objects quite out of reach seem referable to the diffuse waving of arms in excitement, the holding out of arms toward a familiar person (not to take, but to be taken), or the later pointing at objects. 50 FOOD GETTING^ PROTECTIVE RESPONSES, ANGER $1 sion until the object is grasped. Third, to the situation, 'an attractive object seen,' there is the tendency to reach and point at, often with the addition, as James notes, of "a pecuHar sound expressive of desire." In an environment in which household utensils and toys largely replace berry bushes and scraps of food from the family feedings, and in which regular meals are supplied according to more or less civilized customs, reaching, grasping and putting in the mouth shift largely from what is probably their primary function of preparation for, and first steps in, food getting, and blend with the general manipulation of small objects. The accompanying visual, tactile and gustatory examination of the object blends similarly with the general tendency to get experi- ence merely for the sake of having it. The food-getting re- sponses are thus one root of what, as physical and mental play or constructiveness and curiosity, all must recognize as main origins of intellect and skill. Acquisition and Possession. — To any not too large object which attracts attention and does not possess repelling or frightening features the original response is approach or, if the child is within reaching distance, reaching, touching and grasp- ing. An object having been grasped, its possession may pro- voke the response of putting it in the mouth, or of general manipulation, or both. The sight of another human being going for the object or busied with it strengthens the ten- dencies toward possession. To resistance the response is pull- ing and twisting the object and pushing away whoever or whatever is in touch with it. Failure to get nearer, when one has moved toward such an object of attention, and failure to grasp it when one reaches for it, provoke annoyance, more vigorous responses of the same sort as before and the neural action which produces an emotion which is the primitive form of desire. To the situation, 'a person or animal grabbing or making off with an object which one holds or has near him as a result of recent action of the responses of acquisition,' the responses 52 THE ORIGINAL NATURE OF MAN are: — ^the neural action paralleling the primitive emotion of anger, a tight clutch on the object, and pushing, striking and screaming at the intruder. Hunting. — It is not hard to show that man's original na- ture somehow leads to activities which justify James' inclusion of a hunting instinct. But it is hard to discover just what the hunting instinct is. It is, for instance, doubtful wdiether James is right in assuming the 'hunting' response toward "all living beasts, great and small," and toward "all human beings in whom v>'e perceive a certain intent toward us, and a large num- ber of human beings who offend us peremptorily, either by their look, or gait, or by some circumstance in their lives which we dislike." Is there perhaps, on the contrary, so specialized a tendency as that to rob birds' nests, as Schneider maintains ? Just what, in any case, are the situations and the responses, referred to by the hunting instinct? In the writer's opinion they are as follows : To *a small escaping object,' man, especially if hungry, responds, apart from training, by pursuit, being satisfied when he draws nearer to it. When within pouncing distance, he pounces upon it, grasping at it. If it is not seized he is an- noyed. If it is seized, he examines, manipulates and dismem- bers it, unless some contrary tendency is brought into action by its sliminess, sting or the like. To 'an object of moderate size and not of offensive mien moving away from or past him' man originally responds much as noted above, save that in seizing the object chased, he is likely to throw himself upon it, bear it to the ground, choke and maul it until it is completely subdued, giving then a cry of triumph. With both small and larger 'game,' there is, I think, a ten- dency to bring the captured animal to some familiar human being. The responses of cautious approach, of fighting, of avoid- ance and of protective behavior may be mingled in all sorts of ways with the hunting responses in accordance with variations in the size of the animal, the offensiveness of its mien, and FOOD GETTING^ PROTECTIVE RESPONSES^ ANGER 53 the struggle it makes when seized, and in accordance with its alternations from flight to resistance or attack. The presence of this tendency in man's nature under the conditions of civilized life gets him little food and much trouble. There being no wild animals to pursue, catch and torment into submission or death, household pets, young and timid children, or even aunts, governesses or nurse-maids, if suffi- ciently yielding, provoke the responses from the young. The older indulge the propensity at great cost of time and money in hunting beasts, or at still greater cost of manhood in hound- ing Quakers, abolitionists, Jews, Chinamen, scabs, prophets, or suffragettes of the non-militant variety. Teasing, bullying, cruelty, are thus in part the results of one of nature's means of providing self and family with food : and w^hat grew up as a pillar of human self-support has become so extravagant a luxury as to be almost a vice. Possible Specialized Tendencies. — It is possible that ten- dencies to seek particular objects as food and to capture them by specialized sets of movements may also be original in man. Thus Schneider ['82] thinks that bird's nests and eggs are situations of particular potency to attract attention and posses- sion, and Acher ['10] seems to think that throwing stones, hitting with a club, and cutting with pointed objects are re- sponses apart from learning. It has been asserted that there is a special instinct to insert the fingers into crannies (to dislodge small animals hidden there) ! There is some evidence to show that a small object held out or tossed to a young human is more readily seized and tasted than one otherwise encount- ered, and that he will eat food that he himself picks up more readily than the same food when put in his mouth by another. Collecting and Hoarding * — There is originally a blind ten- dency to take portable objects which attract attention, and *These tendencies are listed here rather than in the miscellaneous group because far back in the animal series they probably developed in connection with the food-getting tendencies, though in man today and in some other animals the connection is perhaps entirely absent. 54 THE ORIGINAL NATURE OF MAN carry them to one's habitation. There is the further response of satisfaction at contemplating and fingenng them there. These tendencies commonly crystallize into hcoits of collecting and storing certain sorts of objects whose possession has addi- tional advantages, and abort as responses to other objects whose possession brings secondary annoyances. Thus, money, mar- bles, strings, shells, cigar-tags and picture-postals become fav^ ored objects by their power in exchange, convenience of car- riage, permanent attractiveness and utility in play.* But clear evidences of the original tendency may remain, as in those who feel a craving to gather objects which they know will be a nuisance to them or who cannot bear to diminish hoards which serve no purpose save that of being a hoard. So of the man who stole utensils from his own kitchen to increase his hoard, and bought substitutes ! Avoidance and Repulsion. — To the situations, 'bitter a'n