582 ORIGIN OF INSTINCT. 



avoids the approach of rain, wind, and other in- 

 jurious conditions of the weather ; while, in the 

 construction of its honey cells, it exhibits the 

 perfection of mathematical skill. 



But we are told that all this is mere instinct) 

 because it is not improved by education. What 

 then shall we say in regard to the wonderful im- 

 provement of fleas, which has recently been dis- 

 played under the guidance of an experienced 

 teacher in the Strand ? .Do they not afford proof 

 that the march of intellect is not confined to man? 

 and if we admit that bees construct their cells 

 with as much art the first day of their commenc- 

 ing to labour, as after three years of experience, 

 and that they do it by instinct, must not the 

 latter depend on the peculiar organization of 

 their nervous system ? and if within the limited 

 range of their appointed labours, they operate 

 with more consummate skill, without education 

 and experience, than man, it is because they 

 are employed on only a few objects, to which 

 they are adapted by their organization, and di- 

 rected by a species of physical necessity, arising 

 from their wants ; just as birds of passage are 

 directed by their sensations to seek warmer cli- 

 mates on the approach of winter, or for the same 

 reason that the eye of the eagle can discover 

 small objects at a great distance, and that the 

 sense of smell is more acute in the common 

 hound, than in any other description of animals, 



