CH. III.] ACTIONS OF INSTINCTS. 131 



stimuli, and whose object is to prevent our destruction or ill- 

 being. The instinct of self-defence, 



iii. Strong desires, which arise out of obscure sensational 

 stimuli, and whose object is the propagation of the species by- 

 means of copulation. The instinct of propagation. 



iv. Strong desires and aversions, which arise from obscure 

 sensational stimuli, and whose object is the preservation and 

 well-being of the offspring, and the prevention of its destruction, 

 or its ill-being. The instinct for offspring. 



263. Since the natural instincts of self-preservation, of well- 

 being, and of propagation, are specially implanted in animals 

 by nature, that these objects may be attained certainly and 

 infallibly, they are distinguished from all other desires, aversions, 

 and passions, firstly, because nature has so placed them under 

 the control of external impressions, and so arranged the natural 

 functions of organs, that animals cannot prevent their mani- 

 festation; while, on the contrary, the others are more left to 

 the proper power of the animal to develop, or suppress, increase 

 or diminish, or even to prevent altogether (89, 90). Secondly, 

 the animals themselves, and tte whole of nature around them, 

 are so reciprocally adapted, that these instincts never become 

 inactive until their object, or, in other words, the satisfaction 

 of the instinct is fully attained, which is also the object 

 and will of the Creator (95). Consequently, there is in the 

 instincts of animals a something that points to the attainment 

 of a great object of the Creator, a sufiicient origin of which 

 is not to be found in the conceptive force alone, but in certain 

 predetermined adaptations external to animals, whereby they 

 are necessitated to follow their instincts according to their 

 organism : this is termed the wonderful, the magical [Be- 

 zauberung], the divine in instincts. Consequently, to this ex- 

 tent the blind instincts bear the same relation to other desires 

 and aversions, as external sensations bear to spontaneous con- 

 ceptions (27, 89). Both are excited conceptions, which cannot 

 arise nor be satisfied, independently of an external impression on 

 the nerves, and which nature has preordained, especially for the 

 former. This, however, requires a more minute investigation. 



264. In animals which think, or in all animals, if it be 

 maintained that all have conceptions, the acts to which they 

 are excited by their natural instinct, or in other words, the 



