a ae 
Ee So 
ESSE 
——9 -~ 
INSTINCT. 
more restricted order of terrestrial animals. To 
many has the commission been given to ravage 
and slaughter by open violence ; others are 
taught more insidious, though not less certain arts 
of destruction ; and some appear to be created 
chiefly for the purpose of quickly clearing the 
earth of all decomposing animal or vegetable 
materials (e.g. among the larger beasts of prey, 
the hyena, the jackall, the crow, and the vulture; 
among marine animals the crustacea and nume- 
rous mollusca, and among the lower orders, 
innumerable tribes of insects.) 
“ That a large portion of evil is the direct 
consequence of this system of extensive war- 
fare, it is in vainto deny. But although our 
_ sensibility may revolt at the wide scene of car- 
nage, our more sober judgment should place in 
the other scale the great preponderating amount 
of gratification which is the result. We must 
take into account the vast accession that accrues 
to the mass of animal enjoyment from the ex- 
ercise of those powers and faculties which are 
called forth by this state of constant activity ; 
and when this consideration is combined with 
that of the immense multiplication of life, 
which is admissible on this system alone, we 
shall find ample reason for acknowledging the 
wisdom and benevolent intentions of the Crea- 
tor, who, for the sake of a vastly superior good, 
has permitted the existence of a minor‘evil.” * 
This consideration is forcibly stated by Mr. 
Kirby in relation to one very numerous class of 
animals. “The object of the creation of the 
Arachnidans seems to have been to assist in 
keeping within due bounds the insect popula- 
tion of the globe. The members of this great 
and interesting class are so given to multiply 
beyond all bounds, that were it not for the 
various animals that are directed by the law of 
their Creator to make them their food, the 
whole creation, at least the organized part of it, 
would suffer great injury, if not total destruc- 
tion, from the myriad forms that would invest 
the face of universal nature with a living veil of 
animal and plant devourers. To prevent this 
sad catastrophe, it was given in charge to the 
spiders, to set traps every where, and to weave 
their pensile toils from branch to branch and 
from tree to tree, and even to dive beneath the 
waters.” “ The Scorpions and other Pedipalps 
are found only in warm climates, where they 
are often very numerous. Insects multiply be- 
yond conception in such climates, and unless 
_ Providence had reinforced his army of insecti- 
vorous animals, it would have been impossible 
to exist in tropical regions. The animals we 
are speaking of not only destroy all kinds of 
beetles, grasshoppers, and other insects, but 
also their larvee and eggs.”+ 
Without going into further details as to the 
adaptation of the instincts and powers of 
animals to their office in the world, we may 
‘remark, that there are two peculiarities attend- 
ing many of the phenomena of Instinct, which 
make them perhaps more important than any 
others, as indications of Design in the universe. 
* Bridgewater Treatise, vol. i. p. 46. 
+ Bridgewater Treatise, vol. ii, p. 302. 
27 
1. The evidence of design and of intellect 
which is drawn from the instinctive actions of 
animals, is precisely similar to, and comes into 
strict comparison with, that by which each of us 
is informed of the mental qualities, and even 
of the mental existence of every human being 
except himself. What evidence have we of the 
existence of reason in any of our fellow-men? 
Only this, that their actions and their words, 
which are a set of definite muscular actions, 
appear obviously to be directed to certain ends, 
and fitted for the attainment of these ends. 
Therefore, we say, they indicate design or con- 
trivance, i.e. reason or understanding, in the 
agents. The adaptation of means to ends is 
the indication of intellect, to which we yield 
practical assent every hour of our lives, and it 
would be a proof of deficiency of our own in- 
tellect if we failed todo so. Now, when we 
survey many of the instincts of animals, es 
cially many of those which are directed to the 
preservation of their lives or the reproduction 
of their species—when we see birds of all 
kinds building nests for their future progeny, 
and afterwards vivifying their eggs by incuba- 
tion,—the salmon ascending rivers to deposit 
their eggs in contact with the atmosphere,— 
beavers constructing their houses,—bees or ants 
piling together their cells and collecting their 
stores,—the migratory birds repairing to warm 
climates before winter,—the reptiles excavating 
their winter retreats,—the squirrel, the dor- 
mouse, or the pika, laying up their winter store 
of provisions,—the snail closing its shell and se- 
curing its magazine of air for the return of spring, 
—the spider spinning its web, and preparing its 
cell and trap-door,—the ant-lion digging his pit- 
fall,—the fishing-frog spreading his lines,—the 
camel storing his stomach with water for con- 
sumption in the desert,—the pelican filling her 
pouch with food for her young, and an infinity 
of other contrivances which the organs of ani- 
mals enable them to execute, which they do 
execute day after day and year after year with 
perfect precision, and without which they could 
neither maintain their own existence nor perpe- 
tuate their species; it is plain that we are con- 
templating a set of living muscular actions, 
equally adapted to certain definite ends, and 
equally efficient for the attainment of those 
ends, as the words or actions of any human 
being; and we cannot, without obvious and 
gross inconsistency, decline to draw from them 
the same inference that we habitually deduce 
from the adaptation of means to ends by the 
muscular actions of human beings. And if 
we are satisfied by the considerations stated in 
the beginning of this paper, and, in the case of 
our own instinctive propensities, by the evidence 
of our own consciousness, that the reason and 
intelligence, and anticipation of consequences, 
which are concerned in, and may be inferred 
from, these instinctive actions of animals, are 
not the mental attributes of the animals them- 
selves, we have no resource but to attribute 
their mental qualities to a superior Being, who 
gave to the first individual of each species of 
animals, and perpetuated to each race, its 
organic structure, its sensations, its muscular 
