1 1 * OF INSTINCT. Sect. XVI. 1 1 . ri 



and who could with great facility learn to fing any tune that he 

 heard diftinctly, and yet whofe organ of hearing was fo imper- 

 fect, that it was neceflary to fpeak louder to him in , common 

 converfation than to others. 



Our mufic, like our architecture, feems to have no founda- 

 tion in nature, they are both arts purely of human creation, as 

 they imitate nothing. And the profeflbrs of them have only 

 clafied thofe circumftances, that are mod agreeable to the acci- 

 dental tafte of their age, or country ; and have called it Propor- 

 tion. But this proportion mud always fluctuate, as it refts on 

 the caprices, that are introduced into our minds by our various 

 modes of education. And thefe fluctuations of tafte muft be- 

 come more frequent in the prefent age, where mankind have 

 enfranchifed themfelves from the blind obedience to the rules of 

 antiquity in perhaps every fcience, but that of architecture. See 

 Sect. XII. 7. 3. 



XI. There are many articles of knowledge, which the ani- 

 mals in cultivated countries feem to learn very early in their 

 lives, either from each other, or from experience, or obferva- 

 tion : one of the mod general of thefe is to avoid mankind. 

 There is fo great a refemblance in the natural language of the 

 paflions of all animals, that we generally know, when they are 

 in a pacific, or in a malevolent humour, they have the fame 

 knowledge of us ; and hence we can fcold them from us by 

 fome tones and geftures, and could pofiibly attract them to us 

 by others, if they were not already apprized of our general ma- 

 levolence towards them. Mr. Gmelin, ProfefTor atPeterfburg, 

 aiTures us, that in his journey into Siberia, undertaken by order 

 of the Emprefs of RuiTia, he faw foxes that exprefTed no fear of 

 himfelf or companions, but permitted him to come quite near 

 them, having never feen the human creature before. And Mr. 

 Bougainville relates, that at his arrival at the Malouine, or Falk- 

 land's Iflands, which were not inhabited by men, all the ani- 

 mals came about himfelf and his people ; the fowls fettling up- 

 o-" their heads and moulders, and the quadrupeds running about 

 their feet. From the difficulty of acquiring the confidence of 

 old animals, and the eafe of taming young ones, it appears 

 that the fear, they all conceive at the fight of mankind, is an ac- 

 quired article of knowledge. 



This knowledge is more nicely underflood by rooks, who are 

 formed into focieties, and build, as it were, cities over our heads ; 

 they evidently diftinguifh, that the danger is greater when a 

 man is armed with a gun. Every one has (cen this, who in 

 the fpring; of the year has walked under a rookery with a gun in 

 his hand : the inhabitants of the trees rife on their wings, and 



icream 





