348 Mr. French's Inquiry concerning Instinct. 



Influent intuitive Perception then, thus defined, I take to be 

 the efficient, conscious, or immediate cause of invariable or uniform 

 instinct ; and that it is the real cause appears from a candid sur- 

 vey of the various parts of the economy of animals ; but in none is 

 it more substantially exemplified than in the facts attendant on 

 migration. The late Dr. Jenner in an elegant paper recently 

 published in the Philosophical Transactions, observes upon this 

 subject, when treating of the changes which take place in the 

 generative organization of birds previous to their migrating ; — " At 

 the coming on of spring we observe our more domestic birds, 

 those that approach our houses, and are most familiar to us, assu- 

 ming new habits. The voice, gesticulation, and the attachment 

 which the male begins to shew to the female, plainly indicate some 

 new agency acting upon the constitution. This newly excited 

 influence, which so conspicuously alters the habits of our birds at 

 home, is, at the same time, exerting itself abroad upon those 

 which are destined to resort hither. It is the preparation which 

 ' nature 1 is making for the production of an offspring by a new 

 arrangement in the structure of the sexual organs. No sooner is 

 the impulse arising from this change sufficiently felt, than the 

 birds ' are directed' to seek a country where they can for a while 

 be better accommodated with succours for their infant brood, than 

 in that from which they depart." 



The question here presents itself, — What is Nature ? or rather, 

 what is that principle or cause within Nature (for the change of 

 the generative organization can itself be considered only as an 

 effect,) which is making this preparation ? — is it something ma- 

 terial ? If it be material, then matter is essentially intelligent, for 

 it then acts according to design, without the aid of any guiding 

 power : but leaving this as absurd ; — if the principle, or cause 

 alluded to, be mental, it must be referred, in the case we are 

 considering, either to the immediate operation of the Deity him- 

 self, or otherwise to the operation of the intermediate influence or 

 agency to which our attention was directed in the first of these 

 Essays. It is however here to be distinctly attended to, that the 

 reality of the operation of such intermediate influence or agency 

 by no mean rests upon the supposition, or necessarily requires, 



