ANT, 463 



be derived from the tradition of others ; and innumerable in- 

 itances occur in which animals acquire, in both ways, that kind 

 of knowledge that influences their conduct. But the term in- 

 stinct has also been applied to actions resulting from knowledge 

 not derived from either of these sources, that is, from innate 

 knowledge. There are many facts, indeed, which prove, that the 

 avenues to some species of knowledge are in animals different from 

 what they are with us. The kid, the moment after it is dropped, 

 and antecedent to all experience, shows us plainly, by its move- 

 ments, that it knows at once, and without the long chain of induc- 

 tive reasoning which Berkeley assigns as the source of our acquired 

 perceptions of sight, the distances and situations of the objects 

 which are placed before it. 



It is to those actions alone that lead to beneficial consequences 

 unforeseen by the agent, and not resulting from any knowledge of 

 the effects they produce, that the term instinct is more peculiarly 

 appropriated. Thus, the sagacity of the bird, which, though it 

 was unfledged when taken from its parent, will yet construct at a 

 proper time a nest for its own young, and will sit over its eggs with > 



unwearied constancy, while we must suppose it unacquainted with 



the future pleasures that will be the reward of these exertions, and 

 even unconscious of their object, is properly said to be derived 

 from instinct. Could we succeed in assigning a motive to these ac- 

 tions, we should redeem them from this class, and recognise their 

 place in some other. To this object have the efforts of Darwin, and 

 other contemplative naturalists, been directed ; but the attempts 

 too often fail, from their being the offspring of fanciful conjecture, 

 instead of the results of cautious induction. 



Many of the phsenomena brought to light by M. Huber receive, 

 however, a much simpler explanation on the principle of real fore- 

 sight in the agents themselves, founded on acquired knowledge, 

 than on any other supposition. There is a circumstance in the 

 history of these insects, that is at variance with all our precon- 

 ceived notions of the stationary condition of the races of inferior 

 animals. The amazons, whose republics, like those of other ants, 

 are descended from one parent stock ; and who, in the infancy of 

 their several colonies, must have performed all the duties of la- 

 bourers in maintaining their families ; when, in process of time, 

 thoir numbers have increased, and probably when whole genera- 



