26 Instinct. 



our Legislature, which may be altered or amended 

 even to the " striking out of all but the enacting 

 clause," and substituting entirely different bills in 

 their place. 



According to Paley, ^^ Instinct is a propensity 

 prior to experience and independent of instructio?t.'* 



Whately says, '^ Instinct is a blind tendency to 

 some mode of action, independent of any consideration 

 on the part of the agent, of the efid to which the ac- 

 tion leads y 



Hamilton gives this definition, ^^ Instinct is an 

 agent which performs blindly and ignorantly a work 

 of intelligence and knozvledgeT 



Either of these definitions will serve a good pur- 

 pose in guiding us in our investigation. We ac- 

 cept neither of them as complete. We shall make 

 no attempt to define Instinct till the close of these 

 lectures. And then probably instead of attempting 

 a single, sirnple definition, as might be given of a 

 single force or mathematical figure, we shall have to 

 content ourselves with an enumeration of impulses 

 and methods of action that are called instinctive, 

 because they come neither from experience nor in- 

 struction. 



We must assume that there is in the world 

 something which we may call matter, force, vitality, 

 sensation, voluntary action. Instinct and Reason. 

 We will make no attempt now to draw the dividing 

 line between them nor to determine how far one of 

 them can be resolved into another. These may all 

 be regarded, by some, as different manifestations of 

 the same thing ; but good usage of language de- 



