£44 Instinct, 



dams. In fact, the whole social economy of a Bea- 

 ver colony, is as perfect as though they worked by 

 an organization like that of the hive-bee ; and the 

 facts as detailed by Mr. Morgan, are certainly as 

 wonderful as any fictitious story of Beaver sagacity 

 ever printed. When we read the book we wish 

 that every animal had such a historian ; that we 

 might know something more of this world of ours 

 than we do, and have reliable materials when we 

 wish to investigate any question respecting the 

 habits of the beings around us. 



' But when our author begins to speculate in re- 

 gard to the mental powers of the Beaver, we feel 

 called upon to dissent from many of his conclusions, 

 while accepting the facts that he uses, as estab- 

 lished. 



After acknowledging that the Beaver stands very 

 low in his physical organization, he ranks him very 

 high in Intelligence, on account of the complexity 

 of his works and their adaptation to his wants. 

 And by intelligence here is meant simply the pow- 

 er in the actor, of comprehending means as securing 

 an end desirable and good for himself, in all his re- 

 lations ; in distinction from that voluntary action 

 that secures the same kind of good for the actor, 

 where comprehension on his part, is plainly out of 

 the question. The same course of reasoning, by 

 which the power of comprehension is ascribed to 

 the Beaver, on account of the complexity of his 

 works and their adaptation to his wants, would 

 place the Honey-bee high in the scale of free intel- 

 ligence. There is, indeed, more variation in the 



