French National Inst'ihde. Sg 



not only extremely difficult in themselves, but to which 

 even this conformation iloes not seem adapted. 



None of these philosophers doubt that animals have various. 

 ways of expressing their wants and their passions, and that 

 those of a su]x;rior order, i. e. those wlvich approach our- 

 selves in their organization, are capable of iearniug the sig- 

 nification of several of our words, which they obey without 

 (jomoiitting anv mistakes. 



But, independently of these faculties which resemble ours 

 in some respects, and which also vary in a considerable de- 

 gree in the difierent classes of animals, naturalists think they 

 have dqscovered in certain species, other faculties which 

 seein to be essentially difierent, and to which they have given 

 the name of instinct. 



Ti '-re are certain actions necessary to the preservation of the 

 species, but often entirely foreign to the apparent wants of the 

 individuals, often also very complicated, which, were we to 

 attribute them to intelligence, would presuppose a foresight 

 ai»d knoAlcdge, which none have yet ventured to ascribe to 

 th"!-e species ; actifins which cannot be attributed to imita- 

 tion, because the iyuividuals who perform them often ap- 

 pear to be incapai)Ic of having been taught them, and yet 

 those of the same species exercise them always nearly in ihc 

 same manner : lastly, what is not less remarkable, actions 

 which have no reference whatever to the degree of ordinary 

 intelligence, and which become more singular, more acute, 

 and more disinterested, in proportion as the animals which 

 perform them belong to classes less elevated and more stupid. 

 It is among the insects, the mollusques, and the worms, that 

 we observe the most surjirising instincts : it seems that in- 

 stinct and intelligence arc two faculties given in order to 

 compensate the want of each other, as, in other respects, fe- 

 cundity supplies the place of strength or longevity: it is 

 ever by the just proportion of intelligence, instinct, and phy- 

 sical (jualities, such as tiie delicacy of the senses or the 

 strength of the bodv, that the species arc preserved. 



['I'o Ijc continucil.] 



X\\ 7«. 



