220 Instinct. 



childhood, would have little effect, were it not for 

 this instinctive fear. This supplements her care, 

 and instructions, — it is all that gives her warnings 

 any weight, until later, the child's instinctive love 

 for her, and love of approbation and reward, lend 

 their aid ; and finally, the high Instinct of his 

 moral nature, of which '' OUGHT " is the natural 

 expression, is ready to take the helm. Henceforth 

 his activities may be ruled by this higher nature, as 

 the animal's are from his lower. He will make mis- 

 takes, even while that rules; but he can grow in 

 knowledge evermore, while the animal, having 

 knowledge sufficient to secure life, given to him 

 without experience, can never make acquirements 

 higher than his bodily instincts can use, in their 

 narrow round. 



When, later in life, the son seeks a wife, and the 

 daughter leaves her home, and goes forth to cast 

 her lot, for life, with a comparative stranger, we see 

 an exhibition of Instinct that is a marvel — one 

 that often defies all the dictates and controlling 

 power of boasted Reason. It is all very well and 

 right to talk of sensible marriages ; and of law, as 

 regulating marriage ; that is all right ; because man 

 is made to control his animal instincts — to bring 

 one into subordination to another. And his in- 

 stinct to form Society, and protect it, so as to 

 secure the good of the whole, leads him, through 

 the agency of his higher intellectual and moral na- 

 ture, to prescribe certain rules by which individual 

 instincts shall be governed. By prescribing rules 

 for the animal instincts, and by punishing the unre- 



