INSTINCT. 299 



art or diligence, than is seen in the hatching of a 

 chick, though there are many other birds that show 

 an in finitely greater sagacity in all the fore-mentioned 

 particulars. 



" But at the same time the hen, that has all this 

 seeming ingenuity, which is indeed absolutely ne- 

 cessary for the propagation of the species, considered 

 in other respects, is without the least glimmering of 

 thought or common sense. She mistakes a piece of 

 chalk for an egg, and sits upon it in the same man- 

 ner ; she is insensible of any increase or diminution 

 in the number of those she lays ; she does not dis- 

 tinguish between her own and those of another 

 species; and when the birth appears of never so 

 different a bird, will cherish it for her own. In all 

 those circumstances which do not carry an immediate 

 regard to the subsistence of herself or species she is 

 a very idiot *." 



Dr. Mason Good, without seeming to be aware of 

 this passage, or of the opinion of Newton and Addi- 

 son, announces views which coincide very nearly, as 

 may be seen from his own statement : u In every 

 organized system," says Dr. Good, " whether ani- 

 mal or vegetable, and in every part of such system, 

 whether solid or fluid, we trace an evident proof of 

 that controlling and identifying Power, which physio- 

 logists have denominated, and with much propriety, 

 the PRINCIPLE OF LIFE. Of its cause and nature we 

 know no more than we do of the cause and nature of 

 gravitation or magnetism. It is neither essential mind 

 nor essential matter ; it is neither passion nor sensa- 

 tion ; but, though unquestionably distinct from all 

 these, is capable of combining with any of them ; it is 

 possessed of its own book of laws, to which, under the 

 same circumstances, it adheres without the smallest 

 deviation ; and its sole and uniform aim, whether act- 

 * Spectator, vol. ii. 



2F 3 



