134 MIGRATION OF ANIMALS. 



general words are the stumbling-blocks and barriers in 

 the way to knowledge ; and when we turn to them who 

 take upon themselves the important business of instruc- 

 tion, and ask them for an explanation, they but too 

 frequently give us a word, and when we get one, in our 

 own language or in any other, to which we can attach 

 no meaning, the path to knowledge is closed. Perhaps 

 there are few words by which it is more frequently 

 closed than this same word, " instinct ; " because we 

 are apt to rest satisfied with it as an ultimate or insu- 

 lated fact, and never inquire into that chain of pheno- 

 mena of which it forms a part. Now nothing in nature 

 stands alone : Creation needs no new fiat ; but the 

 succession of events throughout all her works depends 

 on laws which are unerring, because they are not 

 imposed by any thing from without, but are the very 

 nature and constitution of the beings that appear to 

 obey them. It is this which makes nature so won- 

 derful, which so stamps upon it the impress of an 

 almighty Creator : its parts and phenomena are mil- 

 lions ; the primary power that puts all in motion, is 

 but One. 



These reflections have been a little extended, because 

 they are often in danger of being overlooked ; and 

 because the tranquil shore of an expansive lake is one 

 of the best scenes for contemplation, one at which the 

 several elements and their inhabitants are more easily 

 brought together than at almost any other. But it is 

 not the broad expanse of water, with its mountains and 

 its majestic scenery, that is alone worthy of our con- 

 templation. The mountain tarn, which gleams out in 

 the bosom of some brown hill or beetling rock, like 



