246 MENTAL CONSTITUTION OF ANIMALS. 



bee and bird will make modifications in the ordinary form of 

 their cells and nests when necessity compels them. Thus, 

 the alimentiveness of such animals as the dog, usually defi- 

 nite with regard to quantity and quality, can be pampered or 

 educated up to a kind of epicurism, that is, an indefiniteness 

 of object and action. The same faculty acts limitedly in our- 

 selves at first, dictating the special act of sucking; after- 

 wards it acquires indefiniteness. Such is the real nature of 

 the distinction between what are called instinct and reason, 

 upon which so many volumes have been written without 

 profit to the world. All faculties are instinctive, that is, 

 dependent on internal and inherent impulses. This term is 

 therefore not specially applicable to either of the recognised 

 modes of the operation of the faculties. We only, in the one 

 case, see the faculty in an immature and slightly developed 

 state ; in the other, in its most advanced condition. In the 

 one case it is definite, in the other, indefinite, in its range of 

 action. These terms would perhaps be the most suitable for 

 expressing the distinction. 



In the humblest forms of being we can trace scarcely any- 

 thing besides a definite action in a few of the faculties. Ge- 

 nerally speaking, as we ascend in the scale, we see more and 

 more of the faculties in exercise, and these tending more to 

 the indefinite mode of manifestation. And for this there is 

 the obvious reason in providence, that the lowest animals 

 have all of them a very limited sphere of existence, born only 

 to perform a few functions, and enjoy a brief term of life, 

 and then give way to another generation, so that they do not 

 need much mental power or guidance. At higher points in 

 the scale, the sphere of existence is considerably extended, 

 and the mental operations are less definite accordingly. The 

 horse, dog, and a few other animals, noticed for their service- 

 ableness to our race, have the indefinite powers in no small 

 endowment. Man, again, shows very little of the definite 

 mode of operation, and that little chiefly in childhood, or in 

 barbarism, or idiocy. Destined for a wide field of action, 

 and to be applicable to infinitely varied contingencies, he has 

 all the faculties developed to a high pitch of indefiniteness, 



