102 OF INSTINCT. Sect. XVI. 2: 



But all thofe anions of men or animals, that are attended 

 •with conicioufnefs, and feem neither to have been directed by 

 their appetites, taught by their experience, nor deduced from ob- 

 fervation or tradition, have been referred to the power of in- 

 ftinct. And this power has been explained to be a divine fome- 

 ihing, a kind of infpiration ; whiiil the poor animal, that poiTerT- 

 es it, has been thought little better than a machine ! 



The irkfomenefsy that attends a continued attitude of the body, 

 or the pains, that we receive from heat, cold, hunger, or other 

 injurious circumflances, excite us to general locomotion : and our 

 fenies are fo formed and conftituted by the hand of nature, that 

 certain objects prefent us with pleasure, others with pain, and 

 we are induced to approach and embrace thefe, to avoid and 

 abhor thofe, as fuch fenfations direct us. 



Thus the palates of fome animals are gratefully affected by 

 the maftication of fruits, others of grains, and others of flelh ; 

 and they are thence inftigated to attain, and confume thofe ma- 

 terials ', and are furniihed with powers of mufcular motion, and 

 of digeflion proper for fuch purpofes. 



Thefe fenfations and defires conftitute a part of our fyftem, as 

 cur mufcles and bones conftitute another part : and hence they 

 may alike be termed natural ox connate „• but neither of them can 

 properly be termed inftinctive : as the word inftinct in its ufual 

 acceptation refers only to the aclions of animals, as above ex- 



.imed : the origin of thefe actions is the fubject of our prefent 

 inquiry. 



The reader is entreated carefully to attend to this definition 

 cf injlintlive a6lions, left by ufing the word inftinct without ad- 

 joining any accurate idea to it, he may not only include the nat- 

 ural defires of love and hunger, and the natural fenfations of 

 pain or pleafure, but the figure and contexture of the body, and 

 the faculty of reafon itfelf, under this general term. 



II. We experience fome fenfations, and perform fome ac- 

 tions before our nativity \ the fenfations of cold and warmth, 

 agitation and reft, fulnefs and inanition, are inftances of the 

 former ; and the repeated druggies of the limbs of the foetus, 

 which begin about the middle of geftation, and thofe motions 

 by which it frequently wraps the umbilical chord around its 

 neck or body, and even fometimes ties it in a knot ; are inftan- 

 ces of the latter. (Smeliie's Midwifery, Vol. I. p. 182.) 



By a due attention to thefe circumflances many of the ac- 

 tions of young animals, which at firft fight feemed only referable 

 to an inexplicable inftinct, will appear to have been acquired like 

 all other animal actions,, that are attended with confeioufnefs, 



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