DIFFERENCE BETWEEN REASON AND INSTINCT. 23 



it is conscious of safety. A chicken, or a duckling, will 

 not run into fire, because it is conscious of danger ; a child 

 will, because it is unconscious of danger until it has 

 learned it, not by instinctive perception but by experience. 

 We have not here spoken of animals born blind, for the 

 obvious reason that these cases are not within the analogy 

 we are discussing. In such cases the eye is not perfect 

 or fully matured till it is opened at a period after birth, 

 such as in dogs and kittens. In the latter the develop- 

 ment of the eye's organic maturity is slow, and the full 

 opening of the visual faculty gradual ; but children are 

 not born blind, and we are aware of no gradual maturing 

 of their visual organs after birth as in the case of kittens. 

 Berkeley alludes to the fact that a human being suddenly 

 endowed with sight would not be immediately able to see, 

 but would require experience to enable him to use the 

 faculty ; and the assertion is apt to be employed against 

 the evidence of miracles and their possibility, though that 

 would be contrary to Berkeley's intention in making the 

 remark. To prevent this abuse of it, and also to correct 

 the remark itself to some extent, we have only to ask 

 what is to prevent a man from being instantaneously 

 endowed with the power of perfect sight, just as much as 

 a chicken, by the same source from which both derive 

 vision? Nothing therefore can be founded on this 

 remark of Berkeley's against our Saviour and his apostles 

 giving instantaneously miraculous sight to the blind. It 

 is not at conflict even with experienced natural analogy. 



We have now shown, let us trust, that it is the CONSCIOUS- 

 NESS, and not the PHYSICAL SENSE of man, that requires to be 

 educated by experience. It is of some importance there- 

 fore that we should endeavour to know as much as possible 

 of this great primary faculty and ultimate perceptive 

 power, Consciousness how it operates in conjunction 

 with the physical faculties, and where it resides in our. 



