Contingent Instinct. ^S 



bright gleam on the darkness which is soon to envelope it; — 

 ■while the Light of Reason, like that of the Fixed Star, shines with 

 equable and perennial lustre, and Avhether seen or unobserved. 

 This accounts for the fact that animals exercise, as occasion and 

 their natural dispositions and affections require, the powers of 

 attention, foresight, caution and circumspection, &c. without re- 

 taiuing any consciousness of the nature of those qualities, or 

 knowing any thing about them. It accounts for the fact of the 

 common conscious nature of every individual remaining in- 

 capable of elevation : and also for the seeming miracle of migra- 

 tion, both in general, and in some particular instances of it which 

 will hereafter be adduced, in animals not commonly known as 

 migrators. It moreover accounts, in great measure, for that 

 pliability in the nature of animals which renders them susceptible 

 of human influence, and of what is called education. 



If intelligence be essentially present in acts purely instinctive, 

 although the agent be not conscious of it, there can be no reason 

 why it should not operate in a contingent as well as in an uniform 

 manner. To this contingent operation of instinct, upon a connate 

 faculty formed to receive its influence, and not to any rational 

 change, we must, I conceive, attribute the plasticity in the nature 

 of animals : — from this it must arise that the ferocity of some 

 species can be attempered, and the dipositions of others made to 

 yield, and to minister to the necessities, and even to the delights of 

 man. If there is the strongest possible evidence of the subjects of 

 the animal kingdom being supplied with influent perceptions of 

 the means of action, according to implanted faculties of recep- 

 tion; surely nothing more is required to account for the wonder- 

 ful means employed by them, both in a wild and in a domesti- 

 cated state. 



This indeed, as it respects the higher animals, appears at first 

 siglit a circumstance almost of a miraculous ciiaracter; but it is 

 not in reality more so in the case of such animals, than in the ordi- 

 nary operations of the Insect tribes, when viewed under a similar 

 aspect. — The instinct of Insects is not so uniform as has been 

 Imagined : Hcos, although gifted with a perception for distinguish, 

 iug certain flowers and plants possessing poisonous qualities, some- 



