instinct

(in-stingkt’), a. [ of instinguere, incite, instigate, instinct cations of instinct might be profitable to a species; and if it can be shown that instincts do vary ever so little, then I can see no difficulty in natural selection preserving and continually accumulating variations of instinct to any extent that was profitable. It is thus, as I believe, that all the most complex and wonderful tnstincts have originated. Darwin, Origin of Species (1869), p. 187. Instinct is purposive action without consciousne of the purpose. The end to which a definite kind of instinctive action is subservient is not conceived once for all by a mind standing outside the individual like a providence, and the nece ity to act conformably thereto externally thrust upon the individual as something foreign to him; but the end of the instinct is in each single case unconsciously willed and imagined by the individual, and the choice of means suitable to each special case unconsciously made, E. von Hartmann, Philosophy of the Unconscious, tr. by (Coupland, A. iii. Every animal that has well-developed eyes presents an instance of the adaptation of means to purpose by unconscious formative intelligence, which is quite as definite as that shown in any motor instinct, and far more delicate and subtle. Murphy, Habit and Intelligence, xxvii. All instinets probably arose in one or other of two ways. (1) By the effects of habit in succe ive generations, mental activities which were originally intelligent become, as it were, stereotyped into permanent instincts. (2) The other mode of origin consists in natural selection, or survival of the fittest, continuously preserving actions which, although never intelligent, yet happen to have been of benefit. Romanes, Encye, Brit., XIII. 157. 2. Natural intuitive power; innate power of perception or intuition. They [poets] came by instinct diuine, and by deepe meditation, and much abstinence (the same as sub tiling and refining their spirits), to be made apt to receaue visions. Putten ham, Arte of Eng. Poesie, p. 4. Willingly would I now have gone and asked Mrs, Reed’s pardon; but I knew, partly from experience and partly from instinct, that was the way to make her repulse me with double scorn. Charlotte Bronté, Jane Eyre, iv. The truth was felt by instinct here— Proce which saves a world of trouble and time. Browning, Ring and Book, I. 182. instinct i on} (in-stingk’shon), n. [¢ OF. instinctio(n-),