CHAPTER III 
INSTINCTIVE BEHAVIOUR 
T.— DEFINITION OF INSTINCTIVE BEHAVIOUR 
THERE are probably few subjects which have afforded more 
material for wonder and pious admiration than the instinctive 
endowments of animals. “I look upon instinct,” wrote 
Addison in one of his graceful essays, ‘as upon the principle 
of gravitation in bodies, which is not to be explained by any 
known qualities inherent in the bodies themselves, nor from 
any laws of mechanism, but as an immediate impression from 
the first Mover and the Divine Energy acting in the creatures.” * 
In like manner Spence said: ‘“‘ We may call the instincts of 
animals those faculties implanted in them by the Creator, by 
which, independent of instruction, observation or experience, 
and without a knowledge of the end in view, they are all alike im- 
pelled to the performance of certain actions tending to the well- 
being of the individual and the preservation of the species.” f 
According to such views, instinct is an ultimate principle the 
natural genesis of which is beyond the pale of explanation. 
But similar views were, at the time these passages were written, 
held to apply, not only to animal behaviour, but also to animal 
structure. The development of the stag’s antler, or of the 
insect’s wing, was also regarded as “an immediate impression 
from the first Mover and the Divine Energy acting in the 
creatures.” This view, however, is, neither in the case of 
* Spectator, No. 120. 
+ Kirby and Spence, “Introduction to Entomology,” Letter xxvii. 
p. 037 (7th Edit., 1858). 
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