INSTINCTS. 177* 



count for the parental affection from association, I think, 

 fail. With what is it associated 1 Most immediately with 

 the throes of parturition, that is, with pain, and terror, and 

 disease. The more remote, but not less strong association, 

 that which depends upon analogy, is all against it. Every 

 thing else, which proceeds from the body, is cast away and 

 rejected. 



In birds, is it the egg which the hen loves ? or is it the 

 expectation which she cherishes of a future progeny, that 

 keeps her upon her nest? What cause has she to expect 

 delight from her progeny ? Can any rational answer be 

 given to the question, why, prior to experience, the brood- 

 ing hen should look for pleasure from her chickens 1 It 

 does not, I think, appear, that the cuckoo ever knows her 

 young ; yet, in her way, she is as careful in making provi- 

 sion for them, as any other bird. She does not leave her 

 egg in every hole. 



The salmon suffers no surmountable obstacle to oppose 

 her progress up the stream of fresh rivers. And what does 

 she do there 1 She sheds a spawn, which she immediately 

 quits, in order to return to the sea ; and this issue of her 

 body she never afterwards recognises in any shape what- 

 ever. Where shall we find a motive for her efforts, and 

 her perseverance? Shall we seek it in argumentation, or 

 in instinct ? The violet crab of Jamaica performs a fa- 

 tiguing march of some months' continuance, from the 

 mountains to the sea side. When she reaches the coast, 

 she casts her spawn into the open sea; and sets out upon 

 her return home. 



Moths and butterflies, as hath already been observed, 

 seek out for their eggs, those precise situations and sub- 

 stances, in which the offspring caterpillar will find its ap- 

 propriate food. That dear caterpillar, the parent butterfly, 

 must never see. There are no experiments to prove that 

 she would retain any knowledge of it, if she did. How 

 shall we account for her conduct? I do not mean for her 

 art and judgment in selecting and securing a maintenance 

 for her young, but for the impulse upon which she acts. 

 What should induce her to exert any art, or judgment, or 

 choice, about the matter ? The undisclosed grub, the ani- 

 mal, which she is destined not to know, can hardly be the 

 object of a particular affection, if we deny the influence 

 of instinct. There is nothing, therefore, left to her, but 

 that of which her nature seems incapable, an abstract anx- 



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