INSTINCT AND REASON. 5 



volition in the downward motion of a falling stone, 

 and the upward motion of a growing plant. But 

 the disposition has been very general to regard the 

 Avhole conduct and phenomena of an animal as the 

 result of a power implanted in itself, without any 

 consideration of the rest of nature, or of the circum- 

 stances in which the animal is placed. 



They do, indeed, call that power INSTINCT, until 

 they find in its working some faint or fancied re- 

 semblance to that of man ; and then they begin to 

 wonder at the wisdom of the creature, and, turning 

 round, endow it with " an inferior sort of reason/' 

 Now, if that which is composed of nothing but mere 

 matter, however finely it may be organized, and 

 which at the close of its day, its season, or its century, 

 however .ingeniously that may be spent, utterly pe- 

 rishes as an individual, and renders up all the sub- 

 stances of which it is composed to the common store 

 of matter, there to enter into new compounds, obey 

 new laws, and exhibit new phenomena : if a creature, 

 of which that is the acknowledged nature and destiny, 

 is yet endowed with any sort of reason, however in- 

 ferior, how can any argument for the immortality of 

 man be grounded upon his possession of reason, if it 

 differs from that of the mortal and perishing animal 

 only in degree ? *Were that the case, we should have 

 as many shades of immortality, even among men, as 

 there are differences of ingenuity, talent, and in- 

 dustry, in the individuals; and, in many instances, 

 man would have to rank far below some of his fellow 

 tenants of the earth. 



