“The squirrel, before it knows anything of winter, lays up a store of nuts. A bird when hatched in a cage will, when given its freedom, build for itself a nest like that of its parents, out of the same materials, and of the same shape.”
If this is not due to memory, “even an imperfect” explanation of what else it can be due to, “would,” to quote from Mr. Darwin, “be satisfactory.”
“Intelligence gropes about, tries this way and that, misses its object, commits mistakes, and corrects them.”
Yes. Because intelligence is of consciousness, and consciousness is of attention, and attention is of uncertainty, and uncertainty is of ignorance or want of consciousness. Intelligence is not yet thoroughly up to its business.
“Instinct advances with a mechanical certainty, hence comes its unconscious character. It knows nothing either of ends, or of the means of attaining them: it implies no comparison, judgment, or choice.”
This is assumption. What is certain is that instinct does not betray signs of self-consciousness as to its own
knowledge. It has dismissed reference to first principles, and is no longer under the law, but under the grace of a settled conviction.
“All seems directed by thought.”
Yes; because all has been in earlier existences directed by thought.
“Without ever arriving at thought.”