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tonfirm these opinions, in which the surprising saj^acit}- and 

 docility of some of the lower animals were contrasted with that 

 blind propensity which directed them in their pure instincts. 



The Lecturer concluded by guarding his hearers against 

 being led astray by this apparent similarity in the rational 

 faculties of man and the lower animals, into the notion that 

 the distinction between the lords of the creation and the brutes 

 was merely one of degree, not of kind. He considered the 

 capability of teaching whatever he could learn as the grand 

 distinctive characteristic of the human being. To this he 

 traced the advancement of society in civilization, science, arts, 

 and every thing useful and interesting to mankind. He de- 

 precated that dread of innovation which has so long arrested 

 the progress of intellect, and that undue and exclusive 

 respect for ancient usages and opinions, which is so common, 

 and described it as a most pernicious fallacy ; and maintained 

 that it is in the very nature of man to improve upon the dis- 

 coveries of past ages, unless under circumstances, where 

 the intellect of the age has been evaporated in superstition or 

 crushed by despotic power. 



April 20. — Mr. Hunt delivered his second Lecture on 

 Animal and Human Instinct, confining himself principally to 

 the latter, which he divided into Animal, and Intellectual. 

 He described the Animal Instincts of infancy as few and 

 simple, and so perfect in their operation as to require no in- 

 terference on the part of reason. 



The Animal Instincts of more advanced life were adverted 

 to, as being nearly destroyed by the artificial influence of 

 civiHzed life, and sometimes so deteriorated as to be irre- 

 coverably lost. — He recommended that in early youth they 

 should be regulated and moderated. 



On the higher order of Instincts, which he termed the 

 Intellectual, he descanted very fully, dwelling principally 

 upon natural inquisitiveness, the love of power, the love 

 of possession, the love of approbation, the; propensity to 

 oncpiire into the reasons of things, the desire to enquire into 

 futurity, and many other interesting features of the human 

 mind, too commoidy overlooked in the various systems of 

 education. 



April '27.— Mr. H. Christian, Junior, delivered a Lecture 

 on the Natural History of the Horse. He stated that Egypt, 

 and not Arabia, was the native place of the Horse, and 

 mentioned the various purposes for which he was used by the 

 Ancients ; that the earliest record of his bciing l)rought umh'r 

 Kubjection was in Egypt, in the year 1050, before our lera ; 

 that ho then became distributed over Asia, and was brought 

 iiitu the South of Europe. He then described tlie manner 



