PERCEPTIONS OF ANIMALS. 573 



can we figure to ourselves the sensitive exist- 

 ence of the worm or the insect, organized in so 

 different a manner from ourselves, and occupy- 

 ing so remote a region in the expanse of creation? 

 How can we venture to speculate on the percep- 

 tions of the animalcule, whose world is a drop of 

 fluid, and whose fleeting existence, chequered 

 perhaps by various transformations, is destined 

 to run its course in a few hours ? 



Confining our inquiries, then, to the more 

 intelligible intellectual phenomena displayed by 

 the higher animals, we readily trace a gradation 

 which corresponds with the dev elopement of the 

 central nervous organ, or brain. That the com- 

 parison may be fairly made, however, it is neces- 

 sary to distinguish those actions which are the 

 result of the exercise of the intellectual facul- 

 ties, from those which are called instinctive, and 

 are referable to other sources. The actions of 

 animals appear on various occasions to be 

 guided by a degree of sagacity not derivable 

 from experience, and apparently implying a 

 fore-knowledge of events, which neither expe- 

 rience nor reflection could have led them to 

 anticipate. We cannot sufficiently admire the 

 provident care displayed by nature in the pre- 

 servation both of the individual and of the spe- 

 cies, which she has entrusted, not to the slow 

 and uncertain calculations of prudence, but to 

 innate faculties, prompting, by an unerring im- 



