INSTINCT. 301 



Hartley, the celebrated author of the Theory of 

 Cerebral Vibrations, says, "The direction in brutes to 

 provide for themselves and their offspring 1 would be 

 a kind of inspiration, mixing itself with and helping 

 out that part of their faculties which corresponds to 

 reason in us, and which is extremely imperfect in 

 them ; only this inspiration might be natural, as 

 proceeding from the same stated laws of matter and 

 motion as the other phenomena of nature ; whereas 

 the inspiration of the Sacred Writer appears to be of 

 a much higher source, so as to be termed super- 

 natural, properly, in contra-distinction to all know- 

 ledge resulting from the common laws of nature. 

 And yet it may result from some higher laws in 

 nature ; for sacred inspiration would lose nothing of 

 its authority, though it should appear to be within 

 such laws as by their fixedness might be termed 

 nature *.'* 



Two living authors have, with some modifications, 

 advocated similar opinions. " It becomes necessary,'' 

 says Mr. Oliver French, " to establish a test, whereby 

 the operation of the moral, intellectual, and scien- 

 tific powers here alluded to may be ascertained ; and 

 whereby the line of demarcation may be distinctly 

 drawn between man and brute. This test, I believe, 

 is included in the following propositions, viz.: 

 1st. That moral qualities do not become objective in 

 the minds of brutes ; or, that the moral actions which 

 they perform are not reflected upon or contrived by 

 them as such ; thus that they possess no moral con- 

 sciousness, and consequently that no moral design 

 can be attributed to them ; and therefore that so 

 much of moral design as appears conspicuous in 

 their actions must be the effect of moral powers or 

 energies, acting upon them in a region of their 

 minds above the sphere of their proper consciousness. 

 * On Man, Dr. Priestley's edit. 



