292 BRITISH AND EUROPEAN BIRDS. 



Of our proficiency in art 

 I shall convince you ere we part. 

 Look at OUR Domes inlaid with care ; 

 Such let him fashion if he dare : 

 Inspect the Wren*s — the Oriole's nest— 

 The GoldJinch*Sf and all the rest 

 Of curious make ; then say if he, 

 With all his cunning nicety, 

 With all the abundance of his wit, 

 Can ever thus materials fit ? 



As for his wisdom. Being vain ! 

 Behold it in his Sporting Train ! 



may not exactly agree with another poet, a predecessor of Pope, 



yet Prior has treated the subject with more modesty, if not 



with more truth. Speaking of brutes, he says, 



"Evil likens they shun, and covet good ; 



Abhor the poison and receive the food. 



Like us they love and hate ; like ns they know 



To joy the friend, or grapple with the foe. 



With seeming thought their actions they intend, 



And use the means propoi tion'd to the end. 



Then vainly the philosopher avers 



That reason guides our deed, and instinct theirs. 



How can we justly different causes frame. 



When the effects entirely are the same ? 



Instinct and reason how can we divide?" 



Solomon, Book I. 



Yet Pope lias divided them ! — how lamely we have seen. We 



conclude, therefore, that instinct ought to be used in a much 



more restricted sense than it hitherto has been ; it is by no 



means applicable to many of the actions of the brute creation: 



for, in numerous instances, they appear to reason in a similar 



way to man. 



