CHAP. I. CHARACTERISTICS OF REASON. 9 



nearest approach to reason, which had been domesti- 

 cated from time immemorial. But this, if we except, 

 perhaps, the elephant, is assuredly not the case. The 

 ants and the bees, as we shall hereafter show, possess 

 an instinct far above all other known animals ; yet 

 they have never been domesticated, nor can we conceive 

 how their admirable economy could be improved. The 

 operations of their instincts appear to carry them no 

 further than what is necessary to the well-being of each 

 particular species., which every naturalist knows is more 

 or less dissimilar. There are, indeed, a few anecdotes, 

 which occasionally appear in our natural history and other 

 periodicals, of such a marvellous nature, as to indicate 

 reasoning faculties among brutes; but we look on these 

 statements with the same degree of scepticism as those 

 which vouch for living toads being inclosed in solid 

 marble; for no real naturalist, scrupulously jealous of 

 the greatest possible accuracy, has put them forward. 

 Such, then, are the operations of instinct. In defining 

 them, we have also given their ultimate results. They 

 tend to nothing more than the economy of the present 

 life : they have no relation to the improvement of exist- 

 ing communities, or the transmission of knowledge to 

 succeeding generations: each individual, however highly 

 gifted by nature, or improved by art, passes away, and 

 is forgotten. The end of its creation, in the economy 

 of nature, is fulfilled : it has had all the enjoyment of 

 animal life, which, from its very nature, it was alone 

 capable of receiving; it followed its own appetites, its 

 own wishes, and its own will. No consciousness of 

 moral obligation or responsibility was given to it when 

 alive, therefore there remains no ultimate object to be 

 accomplished after its death. 



(12.) Let us now turn to that higher species of voli- 

 tion, to which we assign the term of reason ; and in 

 like manner consider its intention, its operation, and its 

 ultimate results. "We are free to confess that the 

 higher and the lower faculties, viewed merely in some 

 of their operations, appear so intimately blended, that 



