109 
Hustinct v. Bewsow. 
[ is said that animals have Reason; and a question has been 
raised by one of our correspondents as to whether we at- 
tribute to Reason or Instinct the method by which animals and 
birds provide for their own safety and the comfort of their off- 
spring. Now, in the first place, before we determine any pro- 
position, and make known to the world an opinion somewhat new 
or contrary to generally received notions, we should be certain 
that the terms and words we make use of to express that opinion 
are understood by our readers in the same sense that we intend 
them. If there is doubt about the meaning of any word we em- 
ploy, we should give a definition of it and state the sense in which 
we employ it. Words have so many significations, they convey to 
minds so many different ideas, according to the general or par- 
ticular way in which they are intended, that we cannot be too 
particular in the words we select to express our notions, to de- 
fine clearly and distinctly the sense in which we take them. Mathe- 
maticians in general, when the least doubt arises as to the sense 
in which they intend a term to be understood, give the meaning 
which they themselves put upon it, which is no doubt the cause 
why they differ so little in their general propositions. Theologians 
and their disputants, on the contrary, give no definition of the 
words they use in their arguments, which consequently leads to 
_ endless controversy. Let us see then in what way we understand 
_ the word Reason, and determine if we all receive the sense and 
meaning alike. Philosophers, great writers, and custom have 
made a distinction between Reason and Instinct; and that dis- 
tinction is, as we have been taught, the difference between the 
human mind and that of the animial. Reason, I believe, as 
generally understood, is the action of the mind upon knowledge ; 
‘that knowledge, received through the sense of sight, hearing, &c., 
is said to know the difference, or relations, between cause and 
effect, and it is that which regulates our general actions. If the 
