INSTINCT. 303 



From all these circumstances put together, it is 

 more than probable that this lingering flight, at so 

 late a season of the year, never departed from the 

 island. ,Had they indulged me that autumn with a 

 November visit, as I much desired, I presume that, 

 with proper assistants, I should have settled the 

 matter past all doubt; but though the third of 

 November was a sweet day, and, in appearance 

 exactly suited to my wishes, yet not a martin was 

 to be seen, and so I was forced, reluctantly, to give 

 up the pursuit. 



I have only to add, that were the bushes, which 

 cover some acres, and are not my own property, to 

 be grubbed and carefully examined, probably those 

 late broods, and perhaps the whole aggregate body 

 of the house-martins of this district, might be found 

 there, in different secret dormitories ; and that, so 

 far from withdrawing into warmer climes, it would 

 appear that they never depart three hundred yards 

 from the village. 





LETTER C. 



TO THE SAME. 



THEY who write on natural history, cannot too 

 frequently advert to instinct, that wonderful limited 

 faculty, which, in some instances, raises the brute 

 creation, as it were, above reason, and in others, 

 leaves them so far below it. Philosophers have 

 denned instinct to be that secret influence by which 

 every species is impelled naturally to pursue, at all 

 times, the same way, or track, without any teaching 

 or example; whereas reason, without instruction, 

 would often vary, and do that by many methods 



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