sufficiently well; and taking them either singly or en masse, 



they present such a body of evidence of intellectuality (to a 



limited extent) on the part of brutes, as an adversary may 



resist, but I defy him to gainsay. 



* * *- * ->:- -2<- * * 



" The definition which Paley gives of instinct is one that is 

 substantially coincident with all others, whether in books or 

 not. ' An instinct,' he says, 'is a propensity prior to experience 

 and independent of instruction;' and he afterwards adds an 

 explanation, the correctness of which has never been ques- 

 tioned, so far as I know, that the main objects are self- 

 preservation and the continuation of the species. Yet, when we 

 come to examine the actions of the commonest creature, how 

 few of its propensities do we find according fully with tins 

 definition, wliile some have nothing whatever to do with it ! 

 In reference to instruction, for example, is it not true that in 

 most of the inferior animals, perhaps in all, the faculties im- 

 prove gradually. The dog can be trained to perform a great 

 many tricks, and so can the horse. And again, instinct never 

 made a pointer dog, or a hunting falcon. Instinct does not 

 teach young birds to fly; but their parents are obliged to go 

 through a process of painful instruction, just as ours are 

 obliged to teach us the alphabet. Nature certainly gives them 

 facilities for receiving the instruction, and acting upon it ; just 

 as nature formed the human hand, giving it facility to act at 

 the labours of a, Matchmaker or a dentist, though these have 

 to be learned in the practical exercise. The cat trains the 

 kitten to seize and devour its prey : and the community 

 known as ' the Happy Family/ shows, that when otherwise 

 supplied with abundance of food, the cat never knows to 

 hunt, and is not the enemy of any animal. On the rocky 

 coasts of our islands, too, the old eagles put the young ones 

 over a system of gymnastic exercises, for half an hour or an 

 hour every morning. They tear a piece of turf from the 

 ground, soar to a considerable height in the air, and then 



