Self-Regulation, 247 



We recognize thfs principle in our building, and 

 public enterprises, and in our laws, which secure 

 property for generations, and make permanent cor- 

 porations. 



This instinct might be reckoned as belonging to 

 the third class, which are benevolent in their action, 

 as we have already intimated, as well as to the sec- 

 ond ; for the division we have made cannot be 

 sharply defined, as many of the desires and prin- 

 ciples of action have several relations ; and any 

 one of them can be made the servant of another, 

 as has been shown. But among the instinctive 

 principles, which are strictly benevolent, are pity 

 and mercy. 



In our investigations thus far, we have found, in 

 animals, all that they need for working out the 

 best results, which it seems possible for such beings 

 to reach. They have impulse, guidance, and limita- 

 tion oi action secured in the very nature of their ap- 

 petites and instincts. Each one of these 's so far 

 self-regulative, as to make it best for the individ- 

 ual or the species, that it shall have activity un- 

 controlled by any power beyond its own sphere. 

 The best condition which we can conceive of for 

 an animal, when free from the disturbing influences 

 of domestication, is to let him have an abundance 

 of every thing needful to him, and then let him 

 have entire liberty to follow every impulse. 



Not so with man. We have found in him 

 strong impulses, — impulses and instinctive prin- 



