326 NATURAL THEOLOGY. 



exert any art, or judgement, or choice, about the 

 matter? The undisclosed grub, the animal which 

 she is destined not to know, can hardly be the ob- 

 ject of a particular affection, if we deny the in- 

 fluence of instinct. There is nothing therefore 

 left to her, but that of which her jjature seems in- 

 capable, an abstract anxiety for the general pre- 

 servation of the species — a kind of patriotism — 

 a solicitude lest the butterfly race should cease 

 from the creation. 



Lastly, the principle of association will not ex- 

 plain the discontinuance of the affectipn when the 

 young animal is grown up. Association operating 

 in its usual way w^ould rather produce a contrary 

 eflfect. The object would become more necessary 

 by habits of society ; whereas birds and beasts, 

 after a certain time, banish their offspring, disown 

 their acquaintance, seem to have even no know- 

 ledge of the objects which so lately engrossed the 

 attention of their minds and occupied the industry 

 and labour of their bodies. This change, in dif- 

 ferent animals, takes place at different distances 

 of time from the birth ; but the time alw ays cor- 

 responds with the ability of the young animal to 

 maintain itself, never anticipates it. In the spar- 

 row tribe, w hen it is perceived that the young brood 

 can fly and shift for themselves, then the parents 

 forsake them for ever ; and, though they continue 

 to live together, pay them no more attention than 

 they do to other birds in the same flock.* I be- 



♦ Goldsmith's Natural History, vol. iv. p. 244. 



