350 Mr. French's Inquiry concerning Instinct. 



to overlook the influence of intelligence in the case before us ; 

 for if we could suppose the animal constitution to be wound up, 

 if I may be permitted the expression, so as to cause the fibres 

 to act like the alarum of a clock, at a given point of time, and 

 thus were to account mechanically for the change alluded to in 

 the generative organization of migrating birds ; it would be 

 natural to expect that the connubial compact, — not the departure 

 of the bird to a distant part previously to forming it, — would be 

 the immediate consequence : how the perception of their ordi- 

 nary course of conduct, to insure a proper provision for the 

 young by a distant flight, can be the effect of any physical 

 excitement of the sexual organs, it is impossible to conceive : — 

 such a supposition is, in fact, negatived, by the circumstance of the 

 young birds migrating from the spot which gave them birth, with- 

 out any such physical change happening in their bodily economy. 

 " One of the most singular occurrences," observes Dr. Jenner, 

 " in the history of migration, is the mode of departure of the 

 young birds from the country where they were produced. It may 

 be conceived that the bird which had once crossed the Atlantic, 

 or any other ocean, might have something impressed upon it that 

 should prove an inducement to its return ; but this cannot be an 

 incitement to the young one. The identical bird, which but a 

 few weeks before burst from the shell, now unerringly finds, with- 

 out any apparent guide, a track that leads it safely to the place of 

 its destination, perhaps in many instances over the widest oceans :" 

 and at the conclusion of his paper he recapitulates this statement 

 by saying " that the departure of the young birds is not guided 

 by the parent, but the result of an ' unknown principle? 



I cannot help viewing, in these particulars, the effects of a per- 

 ception which appears as it were shed into the animal mind, 

 according to requirement, and for the fulfilment of actions 

 necessary to be accomplished : and I think I am supported in 

 my conclusion by the nature of some other facts observed, as 



dom : — in respect to locomotion and actions indifferent in themselves, brutes 

 are free ; and they no doubt enjoy a species of consciousness such as this kind 

 of freedom is calculated to bestow: they have thus a sentient principle, or 

 plane of re-action, although of a different kind from that of man: the Deity, 

 therefore, is not the percipient. 



