144 SALMONIA. [FIFTH DAY. 



diately derived from the Deity is an opinion which, 

 though it perhaps cannot be confuted, yet does not 

 please me so much as to believe them dependent upon 

 the formation of organs, and the result of the general 

 laws which govern the system of the universe ; and 

 it is in favour of this opinion that they are susceptible 

 of modifications. Thus, in domesticated animals 

 they are always changed ; the turkey and the duck 

 lose their habits of constructing nests, and the goose 

 does not migrate. In supposing them the result 

 of organisation and hereditary, they might be 

 expected to be changed by circumstances, as 

 they are actually found to be. Without referring 

 the instincts of animals to the immediate impulse of 

 the Deity, they appear to me to offer the most 

 irresistible and convincing argument that can be 

 brought forward against atheism. They demonstrate 

 combinations, the result of the most refined intel- 

 ligence, which can only be considered as infinite. 

 Take any one of the lowest class of animals, insects for 

 instance, not only is their organisation fitted to all 

 their wants, but their association in society is provided 

 for, and the laws of a perfect social community, as it 

 were, are adopted by beings that we are sure cannot 

 reason. In the hive bee, for instance, the instinct of 

 the workers leads them to adopt and obey a queen ; 

 and if she is taken away from them, or dies, they have 



