204 NATURAL THEOLOay. 



probable origin, still there is left to be accounted for that 

 which is the source and foundation of these phenomena, that 

 which sets the whole at work, the aropyrj, the parental affec- 

 tion, which I contend to be inexplicable upon any other 

 hypothesis than that of instinct. 



For we shall hardly, I imagine, in brutes, refer their 

 conduct towards their offspring to a sense of duty or of de- 

 cency, a care of reputation, a compliance with public man- 

 ners, with public laws, or with rules of life built upon a long 

 experience of their utility. And all attempts to account for 

 the parental affection from association, I think, fail. With 

 what is it associated ? Most immediately with the throes 

 of parturition, that is, with pain, and terror, and disease. 

 The more remote, but not less strong association, that w^hich 

 depends upon analogy, is all against it. Every thing else 

 which proceeds from the body is cast away and rejected. 

 In birds, is it the egg which the hen loves ; or is it the ex 

 pectation which she cherishes of a future progeny, that keeps 

 her upon her nest ? What cause has she to expect delight 

 from her progeny ? Can any rational answer be given to 

 the question, why, prior to experience, the brooding hen 

 should look for pleasure from her chickens ? It does not, I 

 think, appear that the cuckoo ever knows her young ; yet, in 

 her way, she is as careful in making provision for them as anj 

 other bird. She does not leave her egg in every hole. 



The salmon suffers no surmountable obstacle to oppose 

 her progress up the stream of fresh rivers. And what does 

 she do there ? She sheds a spawn, which she immediately 

 quits in order to return to the sea ; and this issue of her body 

 she never afterwards recognizes in any shape whatever. 

 Where shall we find a motive for her efforts and her perse- 

 verance ? Shall we seek it in argumentation, or in instinct ? 

 The violet crab of Jamaica performs a fatiguing march of 

 some months' continuance from the mountains to the sea- 

 bide. When she reaches the coast, she casts her spawn into 

 the open sea, and sets out upon her return home. 



