1 32 THE GROUNDWORK OF SCIENCE

and so with its egg begins again the cycle of this species'

strange life-history.

All these various forms of instinctive action consist of

movements which take place in response to feelings

which have been given rise to, and which are often, in part,

feelings of antecedent actions, which are the earlier, or

the earliest, stages of the whole instinctive process. An

interruption of the normal course of procedure will some-

times greatly impair or render impossible the completion

of the entire action as we saw in the case of the wasp, the

carefully concealed entrance to whose nest was laid bare.

They thus have a certain analogy with sensori-motor

action,* which only differs from reflex action because of the

intervention of sensation, and so might be called a sensuous-

reflex action of an organ, or system of organs, which so react

on felt stimuli.

But in both insentient and sensuous-reflex action there is a

spontaneous response to a stimulus, and a response which is

more or less appropriate at the time of its occurrence, but

which certainly has no reference to future events, which are

to occur long after every trace of the stimulus has dis-

appeared.

The very essence of instinct, however, is that it provides

for a more or less distant future, often, as in the case of

various instincts of insects hereinbefore noticed, for the wants

of a succeeding generation, which will never be known to the

creature that performs the instinctive actions without which

the new generation could never come into being. Instinct is

essentially telic (i.e., is directed to a definite end), and refers

to circumstances future and unforeseen at the time the in-

stinctive action takes place. Moreover, the actions which are

instinctive, are actions not of this or that organ, but they are

rather the reactions of the whole animal in response to its

* See ante, p. 1 24.

and so with its egg begins again the cycle of this species'

strange life-history.

All these various forms of instinctive action consist of

movements which take place in response to feelings

which have been given rise to, and which are often, in part,

feelings of antecedent actions, which are the earlier, or

the earliest, stages of the whole instinctive process. An

interruption of the normal course of procedure will some-

times greatly impair or render impossible the completion

of the entire action as we saw in the case of the wasp, the

carefully concealed entrance to whose nest was laid bare.

They thus have a certain analogy with sensori-motor

action,* which only differs from reflex action because of the

intervention of sensation, and so might be called a sensuous-

reflex action of an organ, or system of organs, which so react

on felt stimuli.

But in both insentient and sensuous-reflex action there is a

spontaneous response to a stimulus, and a response which is

more or less appropriate at the time of its occurrence, but

which certainly has no reference to future events, which are

to occur long after every trace of the stimulus has dis-

appeared.

The very essence of instinct, however, is that it provides

for a more or less distant future, often, as in the case of

various instincts of insects hereinbefore noticed, for the wants

of a succeeding generation, which will never be known to the

creature that performs the instinctive actions without which

the new generation could never come into being. Instinct is

essentially telic (i.e., is directed to a definite end), and refers

to circumstances future and unforeseen at the time the in-

stinctive action takes place. Moreover, the actions which are

instinctive, are actions not of this or that organ, but they are

rather the reactions of the whole animal in response to its

* See ante, p. 1 24.