Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 6.djvu/65

 THE RELIGIOUS INSTINCT. 49 fluences within us, to repress which the governing instinct for which we are searching would act. It seems very clear that the disadvantageous emphasis of the variant influences thus occasioned may be overcome by the acquisition of habits which would lead men to break away from this increasing complication of life by a return to a simpler life in which there would be fewer distractions, as there were fewer stimuli to activity ; and evidently this end may be reached by involuntary or voluntary separation of men from the active turmoil of life through more or less of seclusion in one form or another, or else by the acquisition of habits of voluntary restraint from the immediate reaction to the many varied stimuli which reach the man in conse- quence of this growing complexity in his environment. 11. Again, we have seen ( 4) that processes of reasoning tend to remain emphatic in consciousness while instinct feelings, and the impulses related to them, tend to disappear into that mass of unnoticed psychic states which makes up the field of inattention ; and we have noted that this fact is often likely to bring about the disadvantageous emphasis of the variant influence of which we speak, for the simple reason that oftentimes a long continuance of attention is required before we are able to gain any cog- nisance at all of the existence of the wider instincts of broader import which should guide us, and because we are liable, therefore, in cases of strong or sudden stimulation, to act under the influence of forces which are of individualistic moment only. The governing instinct, if it exist, might be expected to function in some manner to enable us to avoid this danger. This difficulty in our lives may evidently be overcome, if in no other way, by restraint from the actions dictated by reason until sufficient time has elapsed to enable the less obvious impulses to produce upon consciousness the effects which are peculiar to them : habits of such restraint will most easily be attained during periods of voluntary or involuntary seclusion from the stimuli to action which normally reach the man who is living an active life in the turmoil of a busy community. In the same section, 4, we saw that in a manner not dis- similar the emphasis of the variant influences within us is often occasioned by the mistaking of individually acquired habit reflexes, which have only individualistic value, for true instincts, which are of racial import. The distinctive marks of the true instincts which it is so important for us to recog- 4