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prompt and unmodified reproduction of an art learned by 
a long line of remote ancestors. 
(3) In the third place we have to consider the pro 
position that instincts may be developed or modified by 
Natural Selection in the absence of intelligence on account 
of what is known as the “ lapsing ” of the intelligence. 
We are indebted to Mr. George Henry Lewes for this 
theory, and it may be interesting to note, first, what 
Mr. Lewes teaches on this point; and, secondly, how the 
theory has been modified by Mr. Romanes in order to 
make room for the action of Natural Selection. 
The process by which an intelligent action is developed 
into an instinct is as follows :—First of all, we have the 
intelligent action which solves some new problem presented 
by some new condition. This act, which is prompted by 
intelligence, is often required to meet daily difficulties, and 
quickly becomes a habit. The habitual action soon 
becomes easy to perform, so that it requires less and less 
attention on the part of the agent, until at last it becomes 
automatic—i.e., the agent performs the action uncon 
sciously. This perfectly developed habit is inherited by 
offspring actually or potentially. In those animals which 
have to be most self-reliant in their earliest days this 
perfect habit will be inherited in complete or almost 
complete perfection. And thus an intelligent action 
becomes an instinctive one by processes which we can 
illustrate from the experiences of men and animals. We 
have abundant evidence of the fact that the intelligence of 
some animals is sufficient to solve the problem suggested 
by changed conditions. Mr. Arthur Nichols gives a most 
graphic description of a new method adopted by his 
retriever:— 
“Towards the evening of a long day’s snipe-shooting on Dartmoor, 
my retriever flushed a widgeon which fell to my gun in the river 
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