138 Psychological Distinctions 



own experience, of many Cynthiae assumed to be cardui. It 

 will be borne in mind, however, that man has unintentionally 

 carried with him the seeds of the very prolific plants on which 

 the painted-lady butterfly feeds, wherever he has introduced 

 the Cerealia. 



But to return to that mysterious guiding principle, so im- 

 portant, as we have seen, in regulating the distribution of 

 species ; and which I have asserted to be not wholly absent 

 from the human constitution. It has been stated of many 

 savages, and more particularly of the aborigines of Australia, 

 that they are enabled to return for even hundreds of miles to 

 their homes, though totally unacquainted with the route, 

 being led by an intuitive impulse that they cannot explain. 

 This seems incredible : but we know that diurnal birds will 

 return by night from the heart of Africa to their former 

 abode, marked individuals having done so; and we also know 

 that a pigeon, carried from Paris to Constantinople, has flown 

 back to the former city : these facts will tend to diminish our 

 scepticism. I have two instances, however, of the manifest- 

 ation of this principle by Europeans, when in a state of in- 

 sensibility ; for both of which I am indebted to the parties 

 themselves, gentlemen of unimpeachable veracity : both of 

 them returned, in this condition, to their temporary homes 

 (one in the dark, and for upwards of a mile, having been 

 thrown from his horse, which remained on the spot till found 

 next morning), by routes with which they were quite un- 

 acquainted. I am not disposed to enlarge at present on this 

 subject, by enquiring to what extent numerous phenomena 

 recorded of somnambulists may be explicable on this obscure 

 principle. We hear continually of surprising instances of 

 blind men finding their way, with a degree of accuracy very 

 difficult to comprehend ; and, also, of drunkards stumbling 

 home, when apparently unobservant of external objects. It 

 will be sufficient if these hints serve to awaken the reader's 

 attention, and so, peradventure, elicit some additional facts. 



We have now traced to their ultimate results certain of the 

 bearings of the intuitive information conferred on brutes, 

 which, in wild nature, mainly influences their actions. We 

 have seen that man is denied innate knowledge of the pro- 

 perties of objects, and is, therefore, necessitated to observe 

 and reflect ; in a word, to learn. Hence the necessity of a 

 long infancy and superior intelligence ; hence that progres- 

 siveness which so eminently distinguishes him from all 

 other races. I have nowhere denied that other animals are 

 capable of reflection ; but I assert that, unrestrained by 

 human influence, their inherent instincts sufficing to insure 



