INSTINCT. lOt* 



CHAPTER III. 



OF INSTINCT. 



'ANIMALS exhibit, in many cases, an appearance of skill, 

 forethought, sagacity and judgment, which seems to indicate 

 a high degree of the reasoning faculty, or else an intuitive or 

 instinctive knowledge, which directs them in their actions. 

 Philosophers have been at a loss to determine whether, in 

 these instances, the sagacity of brutes is to be attributed to 

 a power of judging and reasoning similar to that of man, 

 or to a mere instinct. Some have contended that all the 

 actions of animals, of whatever kind, are founded upon ex- 

 perience, observation, and reasoning ; whilst others maintain 

 that they are produced by an innate and original principle, 

 which directs and governs the animal without any voluntary 

 exercise of judgment on its own part. 



' The probability is, that the truth lies between these two 

 opinions. Some of the operations performed by the higher 

 orders of animals can only be accounted for^upon the sup- 

 position, that they are possessed of the same intellectual ./ 

 powers with mankind, though to a much less extent ; whilst, 

 on the other hand, many of them can only be the result of a 

 blind and undiscriminating instinct. The wonderful instances 

 of sagacity, memory, and other intellectual operations, exhib- 

 ited by dogs, elephants, horses, &/c., some of which will be 

 related in the course of this work, can only be the result of 

 the former ; whilst the prudence and anticipation of remote 

 consequences so often exhibited by animals, particularly those 

 of the class of insects, can only proceed from the latter. 



' But with all their powers of mind, such as they are, and 

 all their curious and astonishing instincts, there is an immense 

 distance between man and other animals, with respect to the 

 capacity for improvement. The latter are not capable of 

 making progressive advancement from one generation to an- 

 other, and cannot transmit nor communicate the results of 

 their experience for the benefit of others. Hence, although, 

 in some rare instances, brutes exhibit a sagacity and shrewd- 

 ness which seem to equal that which a man would evince in 

 similar circumstances, yet they do not impart the same quali- 

 ties to others or to their offspring. Man,, who owes more to 

 reason, owes less to instinct than any other animal ; though 

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