Now, such actions performed by man would show high intelligence and much experience; and yet we cannot attribute such intelligence to these insects, because their actions in other directions and under other and new conditions exhibit but a very small amount of intelligence; we are compelled to attribute these wise actions to another and somewhat different faculty, which by way of distinction we call instinct. Let, us then, contrast these two faculties (if they may be so called) and show their distinctive features:
1. Intelligence works by experience, and is wholly dependent on individual experience for the wisdom of its actions.—Wisdom in this case is a product of two factors, intelligence and individual experience. Intelligence alone produces nothing. Experience alone is equally valueless. With a given intelligence the product will vary as the experience, with a given amount of experience the product will vary as the intelligence. Thus intelligence works by experience to attain wise results. On the contrary, instinct is wholly independent of individual experience. The young bee or mud-wasp, untaught, works at once without hesitation, with the greatest precision and in the wisest manner, to accomplish the most marvelous results. Like the reflex function of the nervous system, and like the still lower organic functions of secretion, excretion, circulation, respiration, etc., the wisdom and precision of its actions seem to be the result of structure, though unlike these the actions are not removed from the sphere of consciousness and will, if we call it intelligence; then it is not individual intelligence but cosmic intelligence, or the laws of Nature working through inherited brain-structure to produce wise results.
2. Intelligence belongs to the individual, and is therefore variable, i. e., different in different individuals, and also improvable in the life of the individual by experience.—Instinct belongs to the species, and is therefore the same in all individuals and unimprovable with age and experience. It is true that close observation would probably detect a slight difference in the skill of different bees, and slight improvement with age, in some more than others, but this must be accredited to the individual, not to the inherited element, i. e., to the small margin of intelligence which undoubtedly exists in these animals.
3. Instinct in its sphere is far more perfect and unerring than intelligence.—It makes no mistakes, because determined by structure, not by imperfect knowledge.
In a word, intelligent conduct is self-determined and becomes wise by individual experience. Instinctive conduct is predetermined in wisdom by brain-structure. The former is free, the latter is to a large extent automatic; the one is like the voluntary locomotion of the higher animals, free to turn whither it likes, but liable to mistakes and stumblings and hurtful falls; the other like the motion of an engine laid upon a track which bears it swiftly and surely to its destined goal.
