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action is concerned, until one or the other disposition attains supremacy. As a Maine farmer philosopher once said, it is sometimes human nature to run, and sometimes human nature to fight. When conflicting instincts are called into play, they balance each other, until something, throw. ing its weight on one side or the other, determines which shall have the upper hand. In such conflicts intelligence is often the preponderating element. We decide into which stream to commit ourselves. In this way an instinct, whose action for some reason is undesirable, is suppressed by yielding ourselves to a rival instinct whose operations promise better results.

The third method of side-tracking a disposition is a corollary of the second. It is the case where the impulse, in its passage and before action, is held up in the forum of consciousness to be passed upon by intelligence. If the verdict of intelligence is against it, and self-respect has become organized as a master sentiment about a standard hostile to the particular impulse, it will be ostracized as an undesirable intruder. This is, however, but an example of conflicting dispositions.

I have tried to describe instincts in their operations from lower to higher forms of life, and to emphasize that the driving force behind human nature is not intelligence, logic, or any one cause,

but the innumerable and imperative impulses to action which are aroused when our various instincts and tendencies are stimulated. The problems of life are suggested by our dispositions. Intelligence solves them. It does this by adopting means to realize the ends suggested by dispositions, by discriminating between conflicting dispositions, or by building up an organized body of ideas to become incorporated as part of a disposition, which comes into play as a corrective factor to do battle with rival dispositions whose appropriate acts self-respect condemns.

You will find a list of instincts in any work on psychology. No two authors, however, agree on the same catalogue. Neither do psychologists agree in giving all credit to instincts in determining what we care about and work for. Some say instincts do it all. Others maintain that, in addition to the desires suggested by instincts, there are certain necessary desires which belong to the constitution of the mind, or, if you look at the physiology of it, to the way the brain centers work, quite apart from any hereditary connections. They put in this class the love of unity, order, rhythm, knowledge (curiosity), sociability, and to a certain extent the love of power or selfexpression, and they claim that intellect plays quite a part in these desires. They would probably explain our interest in drill as partly the

native pleasure we take in rhythm, symmetry, and synchronous action. We do not, in these discussions, care whether curiosity, sociability, etc., are classed as instincts or necessary desires. We are concerned only with dispositions useful in military life, or which help us to understand human nature and the means by which it is controlled. We are seeking knowledge of the forces which underlie a soldier's nature, so that we can forecast and regulate his behavior.

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IX

PUGNACITY, EMULATION, AND PLAY

I. PUGNACITY

NIGHTING is the normal and natural play or exercise of man. The English cockneys charging a German trench express an impulse of human nature, as they sing:

"We beat you at the Marne,

We beat you at the Aisne,
We gave you hell

At Neuve Chapelle,
An' 'ere we are again."

Every boy reproduces in his growth this primeval instinct. They fight for the mere love of fighting. Mothers are often disturbed because "Johnny is fighting again." The trouble with Johnny is that he is fighting the wrong thing or at the wrong time. The complaint is premature and unfair because Johnny must have an opportunity to develop and find himself before he can

become a real man. Every well-regulated American mother wishes her boy to become a brave and strong man to do battle against evil, although she may object to the first appearance of his fighting instinct before it is disciplined and its aggression is directed to worthy ends. After Johnny's pugnacity is properly trained every noble woman glories in his fighting strength and manhood when it is enlisted in a righteous cause. I maintain that the real objection raised to pugnacity is to its misuse, and that properly directed it must become a noble influence.

Pugnacity is an impulse to break down and destroy opposition. It finds satisfaction in annihilating an opponent. The impulse is accompanied by an emotional tone which is the internal aspect of this disposition as fighting is the external aspect. This emotion varies from rage to the mere joy in fighting. A characteristic of this tone, when anger predominates, is an abandon and freedom from prudential restraint. The singleness of purpose to destroy inhibits the working of other motives, and liberates all resources in the service of a ferocious and frenzied lust to slay, which finds its supreme expression in the fanaticism of the assault, which seizes troops imbued with a will to win when they rush forward with the bayonet.

Henry M. Stanley, the explorer, who was a

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