8 HABITS AND INSTINCTS OF ANIMALS. CHAP. I* 



the patriarchs in their journeys, four thousand years ago, 

 was not less intelligent than those of the present day; 

 and the dogs of Nimrod were, probably, as far advanced 

 in civilisation as those possessed by our modern hunters. 

 The wild ass of Scripture which was, probably, the 

 zebra is still the same untameable inhabitant of the 

 desert ; and all the efforts of man to make him obedient 

 to the curb have been utterly fruitless. The hen does 

 not discriminate between a real and an artificial egg; 

 and the tomtit will still go on building her nest in the 

 same hole, after it has been destroyed four or five 

 times.* These, and a thousand similar instances, may 

 be cited, to illustrate what we have just advanced. 



(11.) But, it may be said, instinct is improveable by 

 what is called domestication. And when we hear of 

 learned pigs, birds firing cannon, and tigers becoming 

 tame as kittens, who shall determine how far such in- 

 telligence may be carried ? True ; but we may ask, 

 again, are these acquired faculties, unnatural as they 

 certainly are, transmitted ? Are they not the effect of 

 a long, and often inhuman, training ? and do they not 

 perish with the possessor ? The extent of cultivated 

 instinct, as we may properly term all these acquired 

 habits, is only to be known by experiments; and these 

 have been carried sufficiently far, as to convince us that 

 the faculties thus called forth, do not trench upon any 

 one of those prerogatives which, we shall hereafter show, 

 belong to REASON. In a former volume, we esta- 

 blished the fact that a uniform aptitude for domestica- 

 tion is not spread over the whole of the higher animals; 

 but that, on the contrary, it has been more especially 

 granted to such as Infinite Wisdom has set apart for 

 the service, or the sustenance, of MAN. He may, in- 

 deed, arrogantly vaunt that, in training such to his use, 

 he conquers nature ; but the boast is not only idle, but 

 absolutely groundless. He does no more than bring 

 out latent qualities, planted by another and an Al- 

 mighty Hand. One might be tempted, therefore, to 

 imagine that thos animals would always exhibit the 



* See Classification of Birds* 



