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Show Why We Behave Like Human Beings By CEORCE DORSEY, Ph. LL. D. !J-55-!2-fvJ--a--!S-,a?4 BEE LINES AND STORKS THE stork leaves the bnby and lies awuj home. The buby knows how to live; all It has to do now is to learn to behave. It can learn many things; It will be expected ex-pected to learn certain things. It Is fitted for life; It will be trained to lit Into this or that kind of life. It has un Inheritance; It will be asked to Invest this Inheritance In the coin of the realm. Its potentialities poten-tialities are unkown; they will now be tested und given rein to develop or be checked by the bit of custom. In short, every baby la born at a specific time Into a specific community com-munity with definite ways of living liv-ing and set opinions of those who do not live that way; to that life the baby is expected to learn- to adjust itself or, ns it Is sometimes some-times put, to become an ornament! How does it do It? How does the stork know its way home? We do not know. We know how to find our way home and what happens when we arrive home and cannot find the keyhole, or when we promise to be home at one and arrive at four. Even a bee knows Its way home and makes for it In a "bee line." An eel travels down the Rhine to the sea, and keeps right on until she reaches the Azores; lays her eggs ; dies. Her progeny return to the Rhine. Salmon are as "uncanny;" "un-canny;" from the sea they enter fresh-water rivers and ascend far Inland ; deposit their eggs ; die. They are In such hurry to make this Journey to the grave that they do not stop on the way to eat. Young salmon return to the briny deep to grow up, and find their way back up the very same river to pay their debt to their kind and to their nature. During evolution, life has encountered encoun-tered endless situations and has learned sometimes only Indifferently Indiffer-ently well to meet these situations In endless ways. Some of these ways are still miles beyond us. We do not know what impels salmon sal-mon to climb to lakes in mountains, eels to cross seas, birds to migrate halfway round the world, amebae to chase their brothers, or men to beat their wives. We do not even know much ubout Impulses. We do know that some things, some situations, situa-tions, and some people, excite us sometimes more than we are willing will-ing to admit or Is good for us. We respond : we may clean up or go broke. , But whatever It Is that salmon, stork, or ameba responds to, we may be certain that tha response Is an answer to a question : is It poison or food shall I eat It or leave It alone? Friend or foe and if foe, shall I run or fight? And, In higher organisms, does she love me or does she not? These are the three big I things In life. Plants and animals answer these questions, each according to its kind. One's poison Is another's food ; one's deadliest enemy Is another's an-other's life-saver. Each has Its own specific capacity to learn. In short, to each species of animals the world is thus and so; to that world It must respond thus and so; the Individuals of the species are born attuned to the world In which they must sink or swim. The world into which we are born has little relation to the world we were evolved to be born Into; It Is a man-made world, full of whispers and innuendoes, dark corners, cor-ners, and bright lights, selfishness and greed, stupidity and crnelty, and many charitable organizations. In course of time these excrescences excres-cences will be seen for what- they are. Then the years of Infancy can be so spent that the adult can make the most of his capacity to mend his environment Instead of being so misspent that he must use J1 his energy to St into It The baby the stork leaves can neither fight nor run, but In its Innate In-nate Instinctive nature are biologically biologi-cally useful modes of response to the two big crises which confront a human Infant. The response to hunger Is one. Back of this response re-sponse is a mechanism which works like a charm. Sucking begins when the lips are stimulated, evpn by an empty rubber nipple. Food In mouth leads to the next step In this reflex chain-swallowing. The reflex re-flex chain ends with the stimulus of a full stomach. All this is instinctive in-stinctive behavior. The reflex is the simplest and most persistent mechanism of instinctive acts. The two represent a primitive response in a predelermlned direction. Nor does the newborn have to learn to "throw up" a meal or spit it out, or to lick, hiccough, sneeze, breathe, or make a face at qui; nine, for example, or draw up its leg when tickled. These reflex responses re-sponses are Instinctive acts, written writ-ten into Its inheritance. In short, we are born with much valuable knowledge picked up during dur-ing the millions of years we have been living; but we nre not born with the knowledge wfcere food and water are to be found, or with a motor which would take us there if we knew. ((c) by Georse A. Dorgey.) |