260 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



indulged me that autumn with a November visit, as I much 

 desired, I presume that, with proper assistants, I should 

 have settled the matter past all doubt ; but though the 3rd 

 November was a sweet day, and in appearance exactly- 

 suited to my wishes, yet not a martin was to be seen ; and 

 so I was forced, reluctantly, to give up the pursuit. 



I have only to add that were the bushes, which cover 

 some acres, and are not my own property, to be 

 grubbed and carefully examined, probably those late 

 broods, and perhaps the whole aggregate body of the house- 

 martins of this district, might be found there, in different 

 secret dormitories ; and that, so far from withdrawing into 

 warmer climes, it would appear that they never depart 

 three hundred yards from the village. 



LETTER LVI. 



They who write on natural history cannot too frequently 

 advert to instinct, that wonderful limited faculty, which in 

 some instances raises the brute creation, as it were, above 

 reason, and in others leaves them so far below it. Philoso- 

 phers have defined instinct to be that secret influence by 

 which every species is compelled naturally to pursue, at 

 all times, the same way or track, without any teaching 

 or example ; whereas reason, without instruction, would 

 often vary and do that by many methods which instinct 

 effects by one alone. Now this maxim must be taken in a 

 qualified sense ; for there are instances in which instinct 

 does vary and conform to the circumstances of place and 

 convenience. 



