86 HUMAN NATURE AND BRUTE NATURE. 



and instinct, instinct appearing in a large number of 

 instances to do or even to surpass the work of reason, 

 but within an exceedingly limited sphere, and according 

 to a fixed invariable course. Ingenious and thoughtful 

 men, however, taking their opinions not from hearsay 

 and tradition, but founding them on careful observation 

 of the works and ways of God in nature itself, have now 

 shown the baselessness of this ancient estimate. 



The bird building its nest does not follow an invari- 

 able rule, but accommodates itself to circumstances, to 

 the materials of the locality, to the requirements of 

 defence, as man does with his own habitations. There 

 is no proof that the bird builds untaught by its elders, 

 or that it does not improve by practice. Since wasps 

 have been known to construct their nest out of paper, 

 itself a fabric of human invention, it is impossible they 

 can have chosen their material by an original instinct. 

 The cells which various bees construct attain to various 

 degrees of perfection, and imperfections may be found in 

 the most perfect. It has indeed been a curious fancy for 

 men so long to entertain, that though they were created 

 in the image of God to have dominion over the lower 

 creatures, yet those creatures without reason, without 

 teaching, without the God-likeness, should be able to 

 surpass them, by a miracle or a mystery, in the accuracy 

 or perfection of their works. 



The pursuit which man in a low state of civilization 

 has ever thought most noble is that of war. The 

 essence of war lies in the combination of forces and 

 the choice of opportunity. Of both these the lower 



