194 
cumstances, are the immediate object 
of attention. I therefore pass on to 
another fact. : 
Children who are born without the 
organs of speech and hearing are, in a 
great measure, cut off from society ; 
they have the organ of sight, and, if 
there be a great aptitude for imitation, 
their reasoning faculty is excited: but if 
not, idiocy follows; for no attention 
paid them after the years of childhood 
is influential. The reasoning faculty must 
be early in operation, or it never is. The 
proportionate number of deaf and dumb 
children who are idiots, is much greater 
than of children whose senses are per- 
fect; not, probably, because more are 
born in that state, for their countenances 
do not indicate this, but because a soli- 
citous attention has not been paid, early, 
to awaken the reasoning faculty through 
the organ of sight; absolute ignorance, 
which is the lot of such, is idiocy. 
But if reason did not direct Peter and 
other men of the woods, how did they 
obtain the means of subsistence? They 
were guided by instinct. ‘This principle 
must in them have been perfect, but it 
is not perfect in the idiot by nature; 
consequently, their want of rationality 
arose from its not having been excited 
in infancy. 
Instinct is common to. man, and to 
animals: to them it is their all; to man 
it is an impulse, able to guide him in 
the preservation of his existence. By it 
the suitableness of food is discriminated, 
with more certainty than by reason; but 
it knows no law but that of impression, 
which directs it with a blind disregard 
of consequences. Instinct cannot think. 
Lord Kames defines it to be, “ An im- 
pulse of nature to perform necessary 
acts, when reason is deficient.” Such, 
and more than this, is instinct; for 
when, in childhood, the reasoning faculty 
is neglected, instinct acquires strength, 
and governs with a force which reason 
can never afterwards be so elicited as to 
control, 
This predominant impulse, this innate 
principle, has been overlooked and 
neglected ; it belongs to animals: there- 
fore, we have concealed from our own 
observation this part of ourselves. No 
one has inquired into the nature and 
character of its influence, or even into 
its laws; or asked if it be the subject of 
education, or if it be capable of being 
chastened and refined, and made sub- 
servient to the understanding; or what 
circumstances are necessary to ensure 
its energy, without submitting to its 
government. But, before a correct 
Influence of Early Impresssions on the Future Character. (April I, 
knowledge can be obtained of the 
means of forming the character of our 
children, these points must be ascer- 
tained. 
Asa prelude to this inquiry, 'xemark, 
that Instinct does not admit of second 
impressions; that, when formed, its cha- 
racter is unalterable; that,although it is 
innate, and under ary circumstances 
would be manifest, yet it is so bent and 
moulded by the influences that attend 
the early existence of the individual, as 
to form the basis of the character. In- 
stinct is the creature of circumstances, 
but not the servant. These positions I 
hope to substantiate. 
Why this great impulse of our nature 
has excited no solicitude, and has been 
subjected to no rules of discipline, but 
has been suffered to receive its first and 
permanent impressions from accidental 
circumstances, I know not ;—its impor- 
tance claims our care. ‘That its influ- 
ence may be more fully illustrated, I 
appeal to the animal creation, with 
whom instinet alone governs the ac- 
tions. The ordinary influence of this 
impulse was evinced, when Pickering’s 
Island was first visited:—the foxes 
there were so tame as to be trouble- 
some; but when the visitors were dis- 
covered to be enemies, they were feared 
and avoided, and the same disposition 
was imparted to the young. A hare is 
afraid of the first dog it ever saw, but 
is not afraid of larger animals. Birds 
conceal their nests, in proportion to the 
danger to which they are exposed; and 
the experience of the dam is communi- 
cated to the young, and forms the cha- 
racter of its instinct. Domestic animals 
lose their natural instinct, and acquire 
and communicate an opposite class of 
feelings. 
The instinct, in all these instances, 
derives its character from circumstances ; 
but the idea I wish to convey is still 
more clearly illustrated, by the influence 
an animal has over the instinctive cha- 
racter of the young of another species, 
which it is made to bring up. The hen 
that hatches and nurtures a duck, im- 
parts something of her character to her 
adopted young; the duck swims on the 
water, but it associates with the hen. 
A hare, suckled by a cat, loses much of 
its timidity; a kitten, reared in a barn, 
is very unlike one from the same cat 
brought up in'a kitchen, And no after- 
circumstance can produce a similarity 
in their dispositions, which can only 
arise from the different impressions 
made on their instinctive faculty. Colo- 
nel Stewart put a terrier-whelp to a fox 
which 
