ut hatch 



LETTER LVI. 



To the same. 



HEY who write on natural history cannot too 

 frequently advert to instinct, that wonderful 

 limited faculty, which, in some instances, raises the 

 brute creation as it were, above reason, and in 

 others leaves them so far below it. Philosophers 

 have denned instinct to be that secret influence 

 by which every species is impelled naturally to 



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pursue, at all times, the same way or track, without any teaching or 

 example ; whereas reason, without instruction, would often vary and 

 do that by many methods which instinct effects by one alone. Now 

 this maxim must be taken in a qualified sense ; for there are instances 

 in which instinct does vary and conform to the circumstances of place 

 and convenience. 



It has been remarked that every species of bird has a mode of 

 nidification peculiar to itself, so that a school-boy would at once 



