loo Natural Theology. 



every one of the brood vanishes as though the earth 

 had swallowed them. Every fowl knows the hawk 

 to be an enemy as far as he can be seen, though 

 seen now for the first time. 



In the large majority of these cases, and in others 

 that might be mentioned, it is impossible to refer 

 the act of these animals to previous instruction, to 

 experience, or to conscious relation. The impulse is 

 upon them ; they act, they know not why. We see 

 that those acts are for the actors the perfection of 

 wisdom. We know the wisdom is not in them. 

 It must be in Him who implanted the impulse. 



Among mammals, of course excluding man, we 

 find instinct taking a still wider range. It does not 

 work with that almost mathematical precision seen 

 in the bee and other lower animals ; but while the 

 animal remains in a wild state, it is so perfect and 

 uniform in its action that every species is distin- 

 guished for the same habits, and every individual of 

 the species under its direction seeks the same end 

 for himself, and Seeks it in the same way. The bea- 

 ver, the otter, the fox and the marmot, the lion and 

 the whale, remain essentially unchanged in their 

 natures and uniform in their modes of life from gen- 

 eration to generation. The wider range of theii 

 instinct is seen when they are brought into new re- 

 lations. They are then found to have greater vari- 

 ety in their adaptation than the lower tribes. In 

 many of them, there seems indeed to be an intelli- 

 gence quite distinct from instinct, which is called 

 out especially when they are brought into constant 



