148 SALM0N1A. [fifth day. 



sible a subject ; on which, perhaps, after all, it is wiser 

 to confess our entire ignorance, and to bow down in 

 humble adoration to the one incomprehensible Cause 

 of all being. 



POIET. — I agree with you in your last sentence ; but 

 I still adhere to my own view ; and I hope you will not 

 object to a favourite opinion of mine, that instincts 

 are to animals what revelation is to man, intended to 

 supply wants in their physical constitution, which in 

 man are provided for by reason ; and that revelation 

 is to him as an instinct, teaching him what reason 

 cannot — his religious duties, the undying nature of 

 his intellectual part, and the relations of Iris conduct 

 to eternal happiness and misery. 



HAL — "Davus sum, non (Edipus." I will not 

 attempt to discuss this view of yours, Poietes : but I 

 think I may say, that all the instincts of animals seem 

 to be connected with pleasure or utility ; and in man 

 the feeling of love and the gratifying the appetites 

 which approach nearest to instincts, are likewise highly 

 delightful; and perhaps there is no more pleasurable 

 state of the human mind than when, with intense 

 belief, it looks forward to another world and to a 

 better state of existence, or is absorbed in the 

 adoration of the supreme and eternal Intelligence. 



