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any knowledge of what w r e are doing. If, for 

 example, we have the misfortune to fall into water, 

 and cannot swim, the instinct of self-preservation 

 often enables us to escape drowning, though we 

 can give no account, or but a very confused one, 

 of the means we took to effect this. 



As it is essential to our well-being and existence 

 that we should be nourished and refreshed by food, 

 and drink, what we call hunger and thirst are in- 

 stinctive wants, and are quite independent of our 

 will. 



This is a wise and merciful arrangement of 

 Providence; for did the supply of our necessities 

 depend solely upon our own wishes, how often 

 should we neglect them, and thus derange the 

 system, or, perhaps, even destroy health. In grief, 

 in the hurry of business, in study, and on other 

 occasions when the attention is engrossed, did not 

 hunger and thirst remind us of what was going on 

 within us, we should abstain from food till our 

 strength was exhausted. 



Thus man and animals are equally possessed of 

 instinct. In addition to this, however, man has 

 reason the noblest of all his attributes, and which 

 has been denied to the brute creation. 



The importance of reason or understanding may 

 be seen by noting our own actions: when, for 

 instance, we meet with some new object, as a stone, 

 or a plant. We look at it, and examine it; we 

 know nothing about it ; it is quite new to us. 

 Reason is now called in to assist us; we wish to 



