The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-07-28

tainty 30 long as it is used. If the new instinct is of no importance 1t will be lost tor want of use. It is re- markable, however, with what tenac- ity some useless instincts will cling to race; even to intelligent mankind. People inherit some simple little use- less instincts that assert themselves with sufficient force to attract atten- tion and make the person appear IT, diculous. There appears to be no sense whatever in the habit, and the person can offer no good explanation for it's performance. These habits do not usually outlive youth, but they oft en cost their possessors q great deal of annoyance before the so- called foolish habits are overcome. If is sometimes remembered by the old people of tho neighborhood, or else it is traditional, that some ancestor and still some other relative had the same peculiar habit, but their exact nature is seldom sought inasmuch as they are regarded as trifles not worth the pains. They all have the same source. At first they are habits induced by accident or some influence on the intelligence, then they are perpetuated by heredity and pre- served by cultivation or continued performance.
 Some of the most pronounced in- stincts are those displayed by hunt ing dogs. A well-bred setter or pointer will, without any education whatever, point staunchly the first covey of birds it meets. The act of pointing is decidedly reasonable one, yet the pointer on his first covey has no idea whatever of the cause and ef- feet of his point. He simply takes the cataleptic position of his ancestry upon scenting game, and although he may never have seen or scented game before, he remains in ecstasy on his point.
 With the hound, the expression of his most pronounced instincts is equally forcible. Without having previously scented game he takes up trail and follows it in the right di- rection, giving tongue at every jump, just as his ancestors did.
 Of course, there is not the certainty in the performance of these instincts that there is later on, when to the in- stinctive habit is added touch of in- telligence and experience. But there is nothing lacking in these early ex- pressions of instinct but cultivation and experience.
 We can very easily trace the origin of these wonderful and pronounced instincts to their source. There it will be found that they originated in intelligent action. A very well au- thenticated record is to the effect that two hundred years ago the pointing instinct was unknown. At that time spanieis were taught to stop when ever they scented game, that the sportsman might come up and get shot at the covey. This action on the part of the dogs was one of pure req son. They knew they were to stop when the game was scented, and this they did with the same intelligence that a dog goes through his tricks. After several generations this intelli- gent act of pointing began to assert itself in an organized form, and gain- ing an intensity with each succeeding generation and gathering as accessions useful minor instincts, the whole per- formance asserted itself as one grand combination of instincts now 90 pro- nounced in the best bred families of the setter to-day. It Is these highly developed instincts, so certain in their operation, that makes the best of the setter families such 6 marvel of good breeding.
 Men who apply themselves with effort to particular class of work lAy the foundation of a useful instinct that would become fixed in some future generation if their descendants perse- vered in the same course they have pursued. Not that the descendants of lawyers would be able to 70 into ourt and plead cause without prep