234 Instinct. 



Belief in the connection of cause and effect is, 

 as we have said, intuitive ; and we can never tell 

 with certainty, that an animal has such a notion. 

 It is the general opinion that he has not. But 

 he comes, at once, into a world that makes an im- 

 pression upon his senses, and he acts instinctively 

 as though he believed that there is something 

 without him which causes the sensations. He be- 

 lieves instinctively in an external world, if we can 

 judge any thing by his acts. But all that we are 

 sure of is that his acts are correlated to the world. 



Undoubtedly, it is true of man, that he has an 

 instinctive belief in the uniformity of nature's laws. 

 But the belief that any particular event, the ris- 

 ing of the sun, for instance, will continue to occur, 

 as it has in nature, is an entirely different thing. 

 Probably, in man, such belief always comes from 

 experience. It may be given to an animal without 

 experience, when it is needful for him, or rather, 

 for the species. Men plant in spring, expecting a 

 harvest in autumn. The harvest may fail, and a 

 particular experience is needed in each new place, 

 and with each new kind of seed, to learn the best 

 time of planting, and the best methods of culture, 

 to secure a crop. Probably the use of seed, by 

 men, for planting, is entirely the result of observa- 

 tion. Give any man a new seed, and he may be 

 unable to secure its germination even ; or, if it ger- 

 minates, it may fail to produce fruit, because he 

 does not understand its nature. It is plain that 

 man has no instinctive knowledge to guide him in 

 securing a crop. In the only case known in which 



