90 LIFE AND OKGANISATION. 



explored. For the great problem here remains as entirely 

 unresolved as in the earliest days of ancient philosophy. What 

 is the source or proximate cause of those actions definite, 

 peculiar, and permanent in each species which we call 

 instinctive, as distinguished from the acts of reason and 

 intelligence ? The main points of doubt, speculation, and 

 controversy are all concentrated within this question. It 

 involves one which in some sort is precursory to all, viz., the 

 reality and nature of the distinction between reason and 

 instinct; faculties so closely bordering on each other, and 

 often so blended in the same acts, that it becomes difficult 

 to distinguish or dissever them. To obtain a just definition, 

 we must look at the more simple and extreme cases of each. 

 'The absolute hereditary nature of Instincts; their instant 

 or speedy perfection prior to all experience or memory ; 

 their provision for the future without prescience of it ; the 

 preciseness of their objects, extent, and limitation ; and the 

 distinctness and permanence of their character for each 

 species,' are the more general facts upon which we define true 

 instincts, and contradistinguish them from the acts of mind 

 and reason. These two great faculties may be said to exist 

 in inverse ratio to each other throughout the whole scale of 

 animal life. Where intelligence is highest in power and 

 effect, instinct is lowest and least in amount. It augments 

 progressively as we descend in the series ; and at some point, 

 hardly to be defined, seemingly embraces and gives origin to 

 all the acts of animal existence. 



The only probable advancement, as far as we can see, in 

 the theory of Instincts, will be through such researches as 

 may determine their more exact relation to reason in the 

 same individuals or species. The very blending of these 

 faculties in the higher order of animals, while it perplexes 

 in some points, does in others offer the chance, if not the 

 certainty, of illustration to both. Without undermining the 



