Higher Manifestations, 1 1 5 



is placed. In the animal kingdom there are just as 

 plain cases of variation of method where no com- 

 prehension can be fairly inferred, but where it is 

 often presumed to be present simply because the 

 acts are voluntary. We have here another illustra- 

 tion of the value of a more careful study of plant 

 life and the functional changes of the animal king- 

 dom to adapt its members to the conditions, of the 

 world, in correcting many hasty conclusions and in 

 leading us to study the conditions of any act more 

 carefully than is generally done, before we refer its 

 wisdom or the contrivance manifested by it, to the 

 comprehension of the actor. 



We have perhaps sufficiently considered the 

 Instincts as ministering to the demands of the ap- 

 petites. But there are instinctive acts that have 

 no possible relation to the appetites or any function 

 of organs, so far as we can see. They arise from 

 some power of knowing, or mode of acting, given to 

 the animal as its original endowment, such as could 

 be gained by man only from experience or instruc- 

 tion. The fear of a particular enemy is an exam- 

 ple, as the fear of birds of prey by our domestic 

 fowls. Fear of danger is an Instinct common to all 

 animals as well as man ; and a bird may certainly 

 learn by experience, that certain things are danger- 

 ous. In all cases where an animal learns by expe- 

 rience, there may be a claim set up that there is 

 Intelligence; though here there is great need of 

 caution, as many cases of apparent learning from 

 experience can be fairly brought under that princi- 

 ple of Instinct, which we have already explained, 



