INSTINCT. 297 



opinions, which have been and are maintained by 

 philosophers who do not speculate quite so fancifully 

 as those we have just quoted from, though the sub- 

 ject is confessedly beset with difficulties on every side. 



III. The erudite Cudworth, in his desire to sup- 

 port the Platonic theory of the creation of the world, 

 endeavoured to maintain that the whole creation is 

 animated by an active plastic nature, besides pure 

 mind and pure matter. He accordingly referred all 

 instincts to this plastic nature, without adverting to 

 the circumstance that, according to his own showing, 

 inorganic matter ought to give evidence ot the plas- 

 tic nature, and exhibit instincts as well as animals and 

 plants, which is contrary to the fact. The doctrine, 

 however, though apparently so ill-founded, is not very 

 far from that which ascribes instincts to a principle 

 similar to attraction, or to an immediate emanation 

 from the Deity. 



Sir Isaac Newton says, " The instinct of brutes 

 and insects can be the effect of nothing else than the 

 wisdom and skill of a powerful ever-living Agent, 

 who, being in all places, is more able by his will to 

 move the bodies within his boundless uniform sen- 

 sorium, and thereby to form and reform the parts of 

 the universe, than we are by our will to move the 

 parts of our own bodie- 



Addison has supported a similar opinion with con- 

 siderable ingenuity. He says that there is not, in his 

 opinion, " any thing more mysterious in nature than 

 this instinct in animals, which rises above reason, and 

 falls infinitely short of it. For my own part/' he 

 adds, " I look upon instinct as upon the principle of 

 gravitation in bodies, which is not to be explained 

 by any known qualities inherent in the bodies them- 

 selves, nor from any laws of mechanism; but, accord- 

 ing to the best notions of the greatest philosophers, 

 * Optics, page 379. 



