THE 



ZOOLOGICAL JOURNAL. 



March, 1824. 



Art. I. An Inquiry respecting the True Nature of Instinct, 

 and of the Mental Distinction between Brute Animals and 

 Man; introductory to a Series of Essays, explanatory of 

 the various faculties and actions of the former, which have 

 been considered to result from a degree of Moral Feeling, 

 and of Intellect. By John Oliver French, Esq. 



THE mighty and various powers of man are wonderfully imaged 

 forth in the sensible objects that surround him ; and, in the march 

 of science, such additional evidences are continually elicited, in 

 confirmation of this important truth, that we may perhaps be war- 

 ranted in giving a philosophical assent to the sentiment of the poet, — 



That for the Instructed, time will come 



When they shall meet no object but may teach 



Some acceptable lesson to their minds 



Of human sufferings, or of human joy, 



For then shall all things speak of Man. 



Wordsworth. 



Nature's wide domain indeed exhibits a boundless theatre, in 



which moral and intellectual agency is ever active and employed ; 



— strikingly manifesting its presence to the contemplative mind, in 



even the most common operations, the results of which have been 



Vol. I. a 



