38 Instinct and Reason. 



the season of swarming a general massacre of the drones is com- 

 menced. Now it has been observed that if a hive be deprived of 

 its queen, no massacre of the males takes place in it, while the 

 hottest persecution rages in all the surrounding hives. The reason 

 of this is, that the aid of the drones is required to impregnate a 

 new queen. Now as this deprivation of a queen is very unlikely 

 to happen to the bees in a state of nature, we can scarcely sup- 

 pose a special instinct to be implanted in them, which would so 

 very rarely be called into execution. 



It is much more natural to suppose that this omission of the 

 massacre is due to an exercise of true reasoning powers. The 

 bees perceive that without the aid of the drones, their colony 

 would come to an end, and to avert this evil they adopt a course 

 of action different from that ordinarily followed by them. 



But it may be said, why not deny instinct altogether, and 

 class all voluntary actions under the head of reason taught 

 by experience ? This might be a satisfactory solution of the 

 question, did we see these actions performed by the older and 

 more experienced animals only. But it is not so. Many actions 

 are performed equally well by the young and by the old — by those 

 just born, and by those who have the benefit of a life's experience. 

 We see young ducklings take to the water as soon as they issue 

 from the shell ; we see young pointers, when first taken out, point 

 as no dog of another breed will do ; we see young birds taken 

 from the nest before they were fledged, build their own nest when 

 the time comes for them to do so, and build it as well as the bird 

 which has had several years' experience. From all these instances 

 we must allow that there is implanted in the lower animals an 

 instinctive power far superior to that implanted in man, whose 

 instinctive actions are very few and very simple. His reasoning 

 powers on the other hand are as far above the highest known 

 instance of reason in the lower animals, as is the instinct of the 

 bee above the instinct of the human species. 



The limit which may be reached by the reasoning powers of 

 the lower animals can probably never be determined. It can only 

 be judged of by carefully examining the circumstances under 

 which such manifestations are made. 



The subject was summed up in a quotation from Dr. Carpenter, 

 pointing out " that the mind of man differs from that of the lower 

 animals rather as to the degree in which the reasoning faculties 

 are developed in him, than by anything peculiar in their kirtd." 



