PERCEPTIONS OP ANIMALS. 403 



comparison may be fairly made, however, it is necessary to 

 distinguish those actions which are the result of the exer- 

 cise of the intellectual faculties, from those which are called 

 instinctive, and are referrible to other sources. Innumera- 

 ble are the occasions in which the actions of animals appear 

 to be guided by a degree of sagacity not derivable from ex- 

 perience, and apparently implying a foreknowledge of events, 

 which neither experience nor reflection could have led them 

 to anticipate. We cannot sufficiently admire the provident 

 care displayed by nature in the preservation both of the in- 

 dividual and of the species, which she has intrusted, not to 

 the slow and uncertain calculations of prudence, but to in- 

 nate faculties, prompting, by an unerring impulse, to the 

 performance of the actions required for those ends. We 

 see animals providing against the approach of winter, the 

 effects of which they have never experienced, and employ- 

 ing various means of defence against enemies they have ne- 

 ver seen. The parent consults the welfare of the offspring 

 she is destined never to behold; and the young discovers and 

 pursues without a guide that species of food which is best 

 adapted to its nature. All these unexplained, and, perhaps, 

 inexplicable facts, we must content ourselves with classing 

 under the head of instinct, a name which is, in fact, but the 

 expression of our ignorance of the nature of that agency, of 

 which we cannot but admire the ultimate effects, while we 

 search in vain for the efficient cause. 



In all the inferior orders of the animal creation, where in- 

 stincts are multiplied, while the indications of intellect are 

 feeble, the organ which performs the office of the brain is 

 comparatively small. The sensitive existence of these ani- 

 mals appears to be circumscribed within the perceptions of 

 the moment, and their voluntary actions have reference 

 chiefly to objects which are present to the sense. In pro- 

 portion as the intellectual faculties of animals are multiplied, 

 and embrace a wider sphere, additional magnitude and com- 

 plication of structure are given to the nervous substance 

 which is the organ of those faculties. The greater the power 



