SPRINGS OF OUTWARD MOVEMENTS. 335 



look within ourselves, so the decline of the year gives time, and 

 naturally leads us to inquire into the nature of those inward 

 springs by which are set in motion all the outward activities 

 which have formed, hitherto, the chief objects of our notice. 



By the animating principle of the insect world, we do not, 

 of course, mean that of mere vitality, common alike to animal 



* V * 



and plant, but that endowment of perceptive and apparently 

 judging mind which directs the former in its various opera- 

 tions. Instinct shall we call it? Reason? or a combination 

 of both ? This is a question which, according to the observa- 

 tion of a distinguished naturalist, can never be resolved with 

 absolute certainty, except by the person who should be per- 

 mitted to reside some time within the head of an animal, with- 

 out assuming its identity ; or hardly even by a person so 

 situated, seeing how imperfectly we can define, and discrimi- 

 nate between, our own varied or compound springs of action. 

 That those of all animals, insects included, are compound 

 also, made up of instinctive together with other principles, is 

 a notion to which, however, we must incline, in common with 

 many observers of better judgment than our own. Others,* 

 indeed, to whom we must certainly concede the same supe- 

 riority, assign to animals instinct only, making of them mere 

 machines, mere instruments adapted to the performance of a 

 certain number of actions, just as a barrel-organ is constructed 

 to play a certain number of tunes ; a theory, this, hardly con- 



* Descartes, Dr. Virey, &c. 



