INSTINCT. 5. 
observe by attention to our own feelings on 
such occasions is, that while we feel the sen- 
_ sations of hunger and thirst, we feel also a pro- 
pensity, all but irresistible, to swallow what- 
ever grateful food or drink is in the mouth. 
This propensity is not only Ds to reason, 
but stronger than reason, and prompts us to 
action more surely and more energetically than 
the mere recollection of the effects previously 
resulting from food or drink taken into the sto- 
mach could have done. 
If we reflect further, we shall find that there 
are various other sensations, with which we 
_ €an feel, in our own persons, that an instinctive 
__ impulse is naturally linked. The term Appe- 
tite does not express the whole of these, 
although it is only by referring to the action 
_ which it uniformly prompts that an appetite 
___€an be distinguished from another sensation. 
__ Sympathetic movements, such as_ breathing, 
 coug ing, sneezing, vomiting, &c. are ascribed 
by Whytt and others to sensations ; and laugh- 
____ ter, weeping, the expression of feeling in the 
+ countenance and features, &c. are strictly refer- 
_ able to emotions of mind, and in the perform- 
ance of all these actions, a propensity which 
may be called strictly instinctive, because 
_ prior to experience, and independent of reason- 
_ ing, may be frequently and distinctly felt, and 
__is from the first equally effectual in exciting very 
_ complex muscular movements, as the impulse 
_ to swallow food in the mouth. We may 
_ Specify several other kinds or modes of action, 
_ which we are all conscious of frequently per- 
_ forming, and which we perform on many oc- 
_ €asions in obedience, not to any effort of 
reason, but to a truly instinctive impulse, natu- 
ally consequent on certain sensations or 
emotions, and felt even in adult age to be inde- 
pendent of, as they are in the infant prior to, 
__ any anticipation of remote consequences,—viz. 
1. those which are prompted by the instinct of 
____Self-preservation, (as the winking of the eye- 
lids when the eyes are threatened with injury, 
_ the shrinking of any limb or part of the body 
which is struck, the projection of the arms 
when we ate about to fall forwards on the 
face,* the act of crying ‘from pain or from 
fear) ; 2. those which are prompted by the 
_ Instinct of shame, as when the saliva escapes 
from the mouth, when the sphincters fail in 
_ their office, or the sense of modesty is out- 
_ faged; 3. those which are prompted by the 
instinct of imitation, existing more or less in 
the early stage of all human existence, and 
_ whereby we are all led to fashion our language, 
- Inanners, and habits, on the model of those 
_ around us, and particularly of those persons with 
_ whom we have either the most frequent inter- 
course, or the intercourse which is most fitted 
to make an impression on our minds; 4. those 
_ _ which are prompted by the emotions of affec- 
__*™ Let any one try the experiment of attempting 
: to fall forward on his face, with his arms extended 
at his sides, and he will be immediately conscious 
the instinctive impulse which urges him to 
throw forward his arms; and which he feels dis- 
tinetly and resists with difficulty, even when he 
knows that he is about to fall only on soft matter 
which cannot injure him. 
tion and pity, or still more decidedly by the 
impulse of maternal love, on witnessing the 
helpless condition of young infants.* We do 
not enter into details on these subjects at pre- 
sent, but merely mention them as examples, in 
‘which we may safely and legitimately avail 
ourselves of the evidence of consciousness to 
assure ourselves of the essential peculiarity, 
and of the paramount authority, of the in- 
stinctive impulse, as distinguished from the 
voluntary effort, which results from a train of 
reasoning. 
It has been often said that the nature of 
instinct is absolutely mysterious and inscru- 
table; but if what has now been stated be 
correct, this can be said of instinct only in the 
same sense in which it may be said of all 
mental acts without exception; the essence of 
mind, like that of matter, being wholly in- 
scrutable. The characters of the instinctive 
impulse may be distinguished as clearly as 
those of any other mental act, in the only 
way in which any such act can be distin- 
guished, viz. by attention to our own conscious- 
ness; although we never could have antici- 
pated d priori that this kind of mental impulse 
could have extended to so long continued and 
complex actions, and to the concerted ope- 
rations of so many individuals, as the operations 
of some animals indicate. 
Having satisfied ourselves of the existence 
of certain instinctive impulses, both in the 
lower animals and in ourselves, essentially dis- 
tinct from those voluntary efforts which are 
guided by reason, we need not be perplexed 
at finding that there is much difficulty in some 
individual instances, in determining to which 
class of mental acts particular actions ought to be 
referred. However difficult it may be in any in- 
dividual instance, to decide whether an action, 
of man or of animals, is the effect of a blind in- 
stinct, or of reason, anticipating and desiring 
its consequences, there can be no doubt or 
difficulty as to the fact, that these two distinct 
kinds of mental determination to the perform- 
ance of actions exist. 
Neither do we consider it of any import- 
ance to enter on the metaphysical speculations 
which ingenious men have hazarded at different 
times as to the nature of the agent, by which 
the instinctive actions may be supposed to be 
immediately excited. Some philosophers have 
been so strongly impressed with the admirable 
adaptation of means to ends which these phe- 
nomena present, in animals manifestly devoid 
of reason, that they have believed them to be 
in all cases the immediate offspring of the 
divine intelligence, and have expressed their 
theory in the form of an axiom, “ Deus anima 
brutorum,” which, it is humbly conceived, is 
admissible only in the same sense in which we 
assent to the more general assertion, “ Deus 
anima mundi.” 
Mr. Kirby, in his very learned and elaborate 
Bridgewater Treatise on the History, Habits, 
and Instincts of Animals, seems to favour the 
[* The greater number of the actions enumerated 
may, however, be accounted for on the principle of 
reflux nervous action, now so generally admitted by 
physiologists. —ED. | 
