An Inquiry respecting the true Nature of Instinct. 153 



Art. XX. An Inquiry respecting the true nature of 

 Instinct, and of the Mental Distinction between Brute 

 Animals and Man. — Essay II. — An Examination of the 

 prevailing division of the Brute Powers into Intellectual 

 and Instinctive, as presented, in some recent publications, 

 by the Rev. Dr. Fleming, and by M. Frederic Cuvier; 

 including strictures on the Theory of Habit proposed by 

 the latter : with Illustrations of the Specific Constitution 

 of the Brute Mind. By John Oliver French, Esq. 



In prosecution of the views submitted in my preliminary ob- 

 servations on the nature of the Brute Mind,* in which I have 

 attempted to assign a definite limit to its capabilities, I now pro- 

 pose to exemplify the necessity of such limitation, by pointing 

 out the inconsistencies inseparable from those systems which 

 rest upon the proposition, That the actions of Brutes, in certain 

 cases, result from a principle of proper Intelligence ; and, in 

 others, from an undefined principle ; — the essence of which the 

 advocates for those systems do not seek to explain, considering 

 it however to be something distinct from Intelligence : — to take an 

 incidental view of the chief principle of action as it exists in 

 Man, the phenomena of whose mind must form the staudard of 

 comparison in all investigations of this kind : — and to draw some 

 aflirrnative conclusions respecting the essential nature of Instinct. 



In the actions of some animals, particularly of those who are 

 formed to be the more immediate associates of Man, there are, it 

 must be admitted, strong appearances in favour of the opinion, 

 that they do indeed possess faculties the same in kind with, and 

 differing only in degree from, those of Man: and lam free- to 

 acknowledge, that, at first sight, and were I to consider those 

 appearances in an isolated manner, such would be my conviction. 

 But upon a careful examination of the general constitution of the 

 Animal Mind, and of its economy in the aggregate, it will, I 

 think, be discovered, that ail conclusions drawn from those ap- 

 * See Zoological Journal, No. I, p. 1. et seq. 



Vol. I. l 



