Instinct, of course, is irreflective. It is its
very definition. But it may be an inquiry worth pursuing whether
in reflective mankind the mechanical promptings of instinct are not
affected by the customary mode of thought. In his young days, Armand
D'Hubert, the reflective, promising officer, had emitted the opinion
that in warfare one should "never cast back on the lines of a mistake."
This idea, defended and developed in many discussions, had settled into
one of the stock notions of his brain, had become a part of his mental
individuality. Whether it had gone so inconceivably deep as to affect
the dictates of his instinct, or simply because, as he himself declared
afterwards, he was "too scared to remember the confounded pistols," the
fact is that General D'Hubert never attempted to stoop for them. Instead
of going back on his mistake, he seized the rough trunk with both hands,
and swung himself behind it with such impetuosity that, going right
round in the very flash and report of the pistol-shot, he reappeared on
the other side of the tree face to face with General Feraud.
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