172 Mr. French on the nature of Instinct. 



nothing essentially irrational is to be found in the latter. The 

 sole question is, in either case, how much of this intelligence, 

 or -whether any of it, essentially belongs to the conscious nature 

 of the agent. 



That the sphere of human beings exerts an influence of an 

 occult and most wonderful nature on the mental constitution of 

 animals without even any direct communication taking place be- 

 tween them, — thus that an influence is felt by them in consequence 

 of their remote relations with Man, is strikingly proved by the 

 circumstance, alluded to in a former Essay, of the young Foxes 

 mentioned by Mons. F. Cuvier, which when cubbed in the vicinity 

 of human abodes are known, even from the litter, and prior to 

 all experience, to display a sharpened sagacity, compared with 

 those which are born in wild and unfrequented regions. This 

 affords a strong inference respecting the nature of human influence 

 operating tacitly. After this, can we wonder that all the sur- 

 prising acts of imitation which we observe in tutored animals 

 (should be eff"ected by the same tacit agency, acting by or through 

 the human mind more directly upon the brute, — by an instinctive 

 impulse from whence may arise those modifications of perception 

 and action which present us with an image of freedom and ration- 

 ality in a non-rational subject. 



For if brutes possess no proper objective knowledge of quality 

 and relation, no essential power of arriving at true ideas of the 

 nature of things or actions ; how but by an influence connected 

 with the tacit agency of Superior Intelligences, operating upon 

 them, can we account for the moral and intellectual qualities in 

 their actions ! From what other cause can arise the exhibition of 

 such feelings and perceptions as are indicated in the actions of 

 animals more immediately within the sphere of human minds, 

 while we are withheld by the entire condition of their nature, and 

 even by appearances themselves, as well as by the absurd results 

 that would follow the admission, from supposing these inferior 

 beings capable of any rational contemplation of such feelings and 

 perceptions — and, by consequence, from supposing them capable 

 of consciously originating them in themselves. 



Whence does the gorgeous War-Horse outstrip hi& rider in the 



