the true nature of Instinct. 5 



that such adaptation of means to particular ends, such won- 

 derful manifestation of design, could not possibly be the result 

 of organization, as maintained by the Cartesian philosophy ; but 

 in rejecting the latter hypothesis, he overlooked the inferior kind 

 of volition and discrimination, which appears to be included in the 

 natural consciousness of the creature, and which no doubt consti- 

 tutes its sense of life and existence ; and pronounced the whole 

 of their actions to be the immediate operation of the Divine Energy : 

 not reflecting, that such immediate operation must, of necessity, 

 by rendering the creatures perfect automata, deprive them of all 

 consciousness whatever; and thus destroy that sense of life and 

 existence derived from the class of conscious powers which it is 

 evident they possess, and which manifestly constitutes the enjoy- 

 ment of sentient being. 



Now it seems demonstrable that brutes are possessed of a limited 

 conscious discrimination and determination ; which discrimination 

 and determination do not however embrace what is either moral, 

 intellectual, or rational, as regards the consciousness of the crea- 

 ture : but as their actions involve in them causes or powers that are 

 evidently of a moral, intellectual, and rational order, and which 

 powers evidently act upon the mental constitution of brutes by im- 

 pressing and guiding their conscious powers of discrimination and 

 determination to action, according to the purposes or final causes of 

 their being ; — it may therefore be justly inferred that the Divine 

 Energy does in reality act, not immediately, but mediately, or 

 through the medium of moral and intellectual influences, upon the 

 nature or consciousness of the creature, in the production of the 

 various, and, in many instances, truly wonderful actions which they 

 perform. 



If it be asked by what intermediate agency the operations of 

 brutes are thus directed ; — I reply that it is generally admitted, by 

 a large class of mankind, at.leasr, that superior (yet intermediate) 

 powers of some kind, are in actual connexion with the human 

 mind, — though not leading it blindly, as might be supposed to be 

 the case with regard to brutes ; — and if this be admitted, there re- 

 mains no reasonable ground for denying the connexion and influence 

 of similar powers, (whatever they may be), operating upon and dis- 



