INSTINCT. 



23 



salmon, returning to the spots where they were 

 bred after their long migrations, are clearly 

 analogous. 



But in such cases it is obvious that the pos- 

 session of reason could not have enabled these 

 animals, alone and unassisted, to find their 

 way ; neither was the result properly referable 

 to instinct, this term being properly applicable 

 only to the feeling of attachment which 

 prompted the return home, not to the know- 

 ledge which the animals somehow acquired 

 where their home was to be found. The only 

 term properly applicable to the acquisition of 

 this knowledge is intuition, and they should be 

 added to other facts, which shew that in va- 

 rious instances animals acquire, by the exercise 

 of their senses, information as to external 

 things, more obviously distinct from the sensa- 

 tions themselves, than those perceptions which 

 Dr. Reid has so clearly shewn to be strictly 

 intuitive inferences, drawn by the human in- 

 tellect from the intimations of the senses. 



There is yet another fact well ascertained of 

 late years regarding the instincts of animals, 

 which we must not omit to state, because it is 

 the only one which gives plausibility to the 

 notion of Darwin, that sensations and experi- 

 ence would explain the whole phenomena of 

 instinct. This is the fact, which seems well 

 ascertained as to certain animals at least, 

 which is very probably true of man, and sus- 

 ceptible of important practical application in 

 his case, that the acquired habits of one gene- 

 ration may become instinctive propensities in 

 the next. Thus it has been often observed 

 that the progeny of well-trained pointers learn 

 to point with very little instruction. It is 

 stated by Darwin that dogs in the wild state, 

 both in Africa and America, have been observed 

 not to bark, that they gradually acquire that 

 note from European dogs ; and that the latter, 

 when turned loose, retain it for three or four 

 generations, and gradually lose it ; and it has 

 been ascertained that in South America, when 

 horses which had been taught to amble had 

 been allowed to run wild, their progeny for two 

 or three generations continued to practice that 

 pace, and then lost it.* Of the existence of 

 such acquired instincts, therefore, there can be 

 no doubt; but it need hardly be said that it is 

 quite incompetent to explain the perfect uni- 

 formity and the skilful contrivance observed in 

 the instincts of animals ; both because its ope- 

 ration seems too limited, and because that sup- 

 position would only remove the difficulty as to 

 the continuance of the instinctive operations 

 from the present to the early generations of 

 animals. 



In reviewing the varied phenomena of which 

 we have given this hasty sketch, it is impos- 

 sible not to be struck with the very important 

 share which they occupy in the provisions by 

 which the earth's surface is made a scene of 

 continual activity and change. It is interest- 

 ing to reflect on the different powers, to the 



This principle has been lately investigated and 

 illustrated by Mr. Knight, in a paper read before 

 the Royal Society of London. 



operation of which we can trace the unceasing 

 changes continually taking place around us, 

 and particularly on the gradation, and very 

 gradual transition that may be observed, from 

 those by which inanimate matter is continually 

 moved and changed, up to those which ema- 

 nate from the intellect of man. By the ori- 

 ginal impulse given to the world, and by the 

 laws of gravitation and of motion impressed 

 on all matter, the greater and more striking 

 movements of the inanimate world around us 

 are continually determined ; and by the laws 

 of chemistry, these movements are made sub- 

 servient to constant changes in the composition 

 of the inanimate world. Again, by the laws 

 which were impressed on the lower class of 

 living beings at the time of their introduction 

 into the world, and by the consequently in- 

 cessant reproduction of vital affinities, which 

 it is in vain to attempt to resolve into the che- 

 mistry of dead matter, a constant succession 

 of living vegetable structures is determined, 

 merely by the agency of air and water, heat 

 and light, on those already existing. By the 

 peculiar chemical operation of these living 

 structures, the air, the water, and all the ma- 

 terials of the earth's surface are subjected to 

 peculiar and continual changes, implying slow 

 but incessant movements, which seem clearly 

 to indicate attractions and repulsions, peculiar 

 to the state of vitality. It is still perhaps 

 doubtful whether in the case of vegetables a 

 property of vital contraction is to be added to 

 the active powers of nature. In immediate 

 but still obscure connection with the lowest of 

 the vegetable creation are the lowest of the 

 animals, where we see the first and slightest 

 indications of sersations, and the feeblest mo- 

 tions consequent on sensations, which we judge 

 to be similar to those that we ourselves ex- 

 perience and excite ; and here also the vital 

 power of contraction, on which the whole life 

 and activity of animals essentially depends, 

 first clearly manifests itself. Then tracing the 

 animal creation upwards, we find that the 

 world contains an infinite number and variety 

 of sentient beings, the provisions for whose 

 enjoyment we may well believe to have been 

 the main object of Providence in all the ar- 

 rangements on the surface of the earth ; and to 

 which are granted, in a pretty uniform grada- 

 tion, more and more of the sensations and 

 mental faculties by which nature is made 

 known, and of the powers by which she may 

 be controlled, until we arrive at the intellect 

 and the capacity of Man. 



It appears farther that the maintenance, and 

 reproduction, and the very existence of these 

 animal structures are entrusted in part to the 

 sensations of which they are made susceptible, 

 and to the voluntary powers with which they 

 are invested ; but that the introduction of these 

 spontaneous powers into the regulation of their 

 ceconomy is so very gradual, that it is hardly 

 possible to say where the movements which 

 result only from physical (although vital) 

 causes terminate, and those which are excited 

 by mental acts begin; hardly possible, for 

 example, to say, at least as to many animals, 



