PLAY AND INSTINCT. 27 



great attractive power for religious natures, and espe- 

 cially so at the epoch of the Enlightenment, that period 

 of reflective thought when the favourite attitude was 

 one of " adoring contemplation " of the Creator's power. 

 A naive conception of the universe like that of Gellert, 

 for instance, who informs us in one of his poems that 

 God called the sun and moon into existence for the pur- 

 pose of dividing the seasons, naturally impels its holders 

 to similar conclusions with regard to the adaptation of 

 animal instincts. Two examples from this period and 

 three modern ones may serve to illustrate this concep- 

 tion. Eomanes quotes this remark of Addison's: "I 

 look upon instinct as upon the principle of gravitation 

 in bodies, which is not to be explained by any known 

 qualities inherent in the bodies themselves, nor from 

 any laws of mechanism, but as an immediate impression 

 from the first mover and divine energy acting in the 

 creatures." * 



Keimarus regards instinct as a direct proof of the 

 existence of God. His work, referred to above, contains 

 a chapter on knowledge of the. Creator through animal 

 art-impulses, in which he expresses the opinion that 

 such powers of body and soul as animal instincts dis- 

 close surpass the forces of Nature, showing us the " wise 

 and good Author of Nature who has appointed for every 

 animal the powers necessary for his life." 



A definition from the eighth edition of the Encyclo- 

 paedia Britannica may be mentioned as a modern ex- 

 ample: f "It thus remains for us to regard instinct as 

 a mental faculty,, sui generis, the gift of God to the lower 

 animals, that man in his own person and by them might 

 be relieved from the meanest drudgery of Nature." 



* G. J. Romanes, Animal Intelligence, p. 11. 



f Cited from Romanes's Darwin and after Darwin, i, p. 290. 



