Norwich bulletin., 1921-10-25
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Instinct and Reason

Mir. Editor: I wonder how many of
 your subscribers read the column bv The Man Who Talks?' Some writers complain that they are held up for want of subjects, out any reader of the above columns will find enough subjects started to keep all the literary men in town 1 agoing. Interesting topics too. His recent letter-devoted in part to 1 the discussion of the comparison between
 Instinct and Reason is peculiar.v sug- gestive. He seemed, however, to iurp
 at conclusion when he says that. fin stinct plays both man and beast some l dirty mean tricks" The statement | seems rude, but he illustrates bv two | examples-one of the hungry fish-an- other of a naughty boy Instinct" he says, "does not warn the fish to beware when it sees the wriggling worm Ger tainly not. Instinct says there is food | of the kind you desire, and so the fish l swallows the bait hook and all Cnot the
 sinker, howe ver). The dirty, mean trick i is that played by the fsherman-the higher CD animal-endowed with req
 son.
 The other example of the boy who is
 tempted to do something that will break his mothers heart" does not heed
 instinct nor co lscience, nor their warn | ing that this is the way to he'll" The l boy reasons, thvs. Mother is an old fogy, and dad is a back number" and
 the education of today points him in the ] opposite way to that followed by his par
 ents
 | Neither correct reason nor instinct ob- tains in such a. case. Nothing but blind | conceit; and so the boy brings disgrace on himself and his mother by disregard ing her precepts and examples. I was
 once told by a clergyman who was do- ing effective work, that his young son
 who was being schooled at the academy
 said to him. "You know, father, that you have not had these advantages"
 It may have been that the father had
 not been blessed with the opportunities for @ high classical training. but he had
 more horse-sense than a score of such
 boys.
 By the way this phrase. horse-sense
 carries us back to our starting point, In
 stinct and Reason. The man who studies
 a horse, owning one, knows what horse
 sense means, and how in common par lance it has become allied to human sense-and why Webster in his diction
 ary defies it as "strong common sense
 of a very practical kind"
 Paleg, a good authority, defines in stinct as "a propensity prior to expert | l comprehensive interpretation. As the an
 imaI comes into life without experience !. it, of necessity, must have instinct as { kind of capital to start with, and if should presume to define reason I would
 say 1t was the faculty by which in , stirct is to be amplified. Of all animals . it is said that the human one comes int l the world the most helpless. In fact i g the child cries at birth it is not re . parded IS a bad omen-and what is tha : cry but an appeal for help? It may b S information to some that the first ac . of the old Irish midwife is to wrap tn
 i new born infant in a mans shirt Not . freshly laundried one, but one from tn = back of the man of the house. a In this the midwife may be followin k an old traditional instinct, but, if yo
 please, for all that, her act is founde !, | on substantial hygienic reasons-it ma !, be consciously to her. A good resem Y blance to instinct and reason may b = found in music, which is a natural gil s that can be cultivated to a high de :. gree. All men, however, are not bor Q with musical instinct and it has been of served that man or woman withoJ N music, is deficient iii adaptation to othe l srts and scierces
 # Shakespeare says, ''the man who ha q not music Tn hlS soul, Is It Ior tIedSoIi > stratagems and plots-let no such one e trusted" This is not all poetry; henc e when we mako choice of leader or a l. apprentice it is well to know before han X whether he can whistle or sing, bef9l 1 we tie up to him. But, MT. Editor, le have exceeded the limit l set for m! e self in this letter, and, perhaps, als IT our patience, so will have to draw Id tang on this discourse,
 n Respectfully,
 l. JOHN TROLAND. ,r Norwich, Oct. 22, 1921.