292 FACULTIES OF BIRDS. 



in part acquired before their nativity, and hence 

 accomplish it afterwards with very few efforts ; whilst 

 the swimming of the human creature resembles that 

 of the frog-, and totally differs from his mode of 

 walking*. 5 * 



" By a due attention to such circumstances/' Dar- 

 win elsewhere says, " many of the actions which at 

 first sight seemed only referable to an inexplicable 

 instinct, will appear to have been acquired, like all 

 other animal actions that are attended with conscious- 

 ness, by the repeated efforts of our muscles under the 

 conduct of our sensations or desires f." 



Dr. Darwin in another work goes even further 

 than this, and would have us believe that the mi- 

 grations of birds are not instinctive, but accidental 

 improvements, like the arts among mankind, taught 

 by their contemporaries, and delivered by tradition ; 

 and thinks it " not unreasonable to conclude, that 

 some of the actions, both of large animals and of 

 insects, may have been acquired in a state preceding 

 the present one, and have been derived from the 

 parents to their offspring by imitation or other kind 

 of tradition J." 



This doctrine must appear to most readers to be 

 groundless and fanciful. But lest it may, by its 

 novelty, fascinate any young and inexperienced in- 

 quirer, we shall borrow from Dr. Mason Good a 

 familiar instance, which nobody can possibly explain 

 upon Darwin's principles. 



" In various cases of the instinctive faculty," he 

 remarks, * c the most excursive theorist cannot picture 

 to his imagination any thing like a chain of thought, 

 or previous reasoning ; any thing like habit or imi- 

 tation, by which the means and the end are joined 

 together. Let us take as an example, the very com- 



# Zoonomia, xvi. 3. f Ibid. xvi. 2, 4. 



I Temple of Nature, note 40. 



