72 EVOLUTION OF LIFE. 



they know not, and cannot resist; by fatal ne- 

 cessity, by brutal appetite. 



Beings, such as these, cannot be considered 

 accountable for the actions that they perform, 

 any more than vegetables, which neither feel, 

 nor reflect. These actions are always limited 

 and directed to the narrow limits of their par- 

 ticular instincts ; however varied, in their direc- 

 tion, in different beings those instincts may be, 

 they are invariably the same throughout the 

 life of the same individual, as well as of all be- 

 longing to the same class ; and, are at once per- 

 fect, not by previous instruction, or even imita- 

 tion, but by a sort of intuitive power which is 

 possessed throughout the whole race of animat- 

 ed beings. Every particular class, therefore, 

 performs the same actions in the same way, and 

 with the same degrees of perfection. The 

 works of animals are, indeed, like the works of 

 nature, so perfect in their kind, that they can 

 bear the most critical examination of the me- 

 chanic and mathematician. No human art has 

 ever been able to imitate the wonderful ma- 

 chinery constructed by the power of the bee, or 

 the web, by the tentacula! of the spider. It has 

 been well observed by Dr. RE^D, (w r hose 

 authority upon these subjects must carry with 

 it great weight) that every manufacturing art 

 among men, was invented by some man, im- 

 proved by others, and brought to perfection by 



