the true nature of Instinct. 7 



are goTerned by such agencies, good and evil, but under the control 

 of Providence ; and that such agencies act by impressions upon their 

 conscious nature, but unperceived by it in a moral or intellectual 

 sense ; — effecting such operation by means of connate inclinations 

 implanted in their nature, and disposing them to receive the im- 

 pressions ; and which inclinations appear to constitute the ground or 

 basis upon which is formed that lower species of consciousness^ 

 volition, and discrimination, which seems the proper attribute of 

 the brute animal. 



Upon these principles, the mixed natures of some animals are 

 satisfactorily explained ; — as in the instance of the Phoca Ursina^ 

 the males of which species manifest the most singular tenderness 

 towards their young progeny, and at the same time a savage and 

 persecuting disposition towards their females.* These opposite 

 and dissimilar propensities are not indicative of any moral principles 

 that can be ascribed, otherwise than in an apparent sense, to the 

 creature ; as will be distinctly shewn in the progress of ogf 

 inquiries. 



Viewed, then, in this light, and explained in this manner. Pro- 

 vidence is conspicuous in the operations of brute nature ; and it is 

 but reasonable to conclude that the Divine Being does indeed 

 operate, by unseen mediums, of whatever kind they be, as thfe 

 Great Regulator of the whole. ' 



Facts have undoubtedly occurred to exemplify the operation of 

 such agency in special interferences of Providence, through the 

 medium of the brute mind ; of which the following well authenti- 

 cated instance must be regarded as a very striking one. 



At Ditchley, near Blenheim, now the seat of Viscount Dillon, but 

 formerly of the Lees, Earls of Lichfield, is a portrait of Sir Henry 

 Lee, by Janscn, with that of a mastiff dog which saved his life. One 

 of Sir Henry's servants had formed the design of assassinating hi& 

 master, and robbing the house ; but on the night he had intended 

 to perpetrate it, the dog, for the fust time, followed Sir Henry up 

 stairs, took his station under his bed, and could not be driveii 

 thence : in the dead of the night, the servant, not knowing the dog 

 was there, entered the room to execute his diabolical purpose ; 

 • Bingley; Animal Diog. vol. i, p. l!)3. 



