134 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



The character of the sub-genus Cricetus (the Hamsters 

 or Pouched Rat) will be found sufficiently noticed in the 

 text and table ; we shall, therefore, proceed to some ac- 

 counts of the species. 



Nothing so greatly shows the power and extent of the 

 resources of Nature, as the modes in which she supplies by 

 instinct the want of intelligence, and puts a blind and ne- 

 cessary force in the place of judgment and reason. When 

 this is done, we find those beings which are in reality the 

 most stupid, appear to possess the most extensive intellec- 

 tual faculties. They seem to approximate to man ; to 

 equal, nay, to surpass him in foresight and sagacity. What 

 is most singular is, that these remarkable faculties are 

 usually accompanied by organs the most limited, and phy- 

 sical qualities the most feeble. The circumstance, however, 

 which separates instinct from intelligence, and gives to the 

 latter the most decided superiority, is, that instinct is cir- 

 cumscribed to a small number of actions, out of the range 

 of which it is absolutely nothing. But intelligence, on the 

 contrary, always present, and always ready for action, ex- 

 tends itself to all circumstances, to all times, and to all 

 places. With instinct the world is bounded to it alone, but 

 the reign of intelligence extends beyond the dominion of 

 the senses. 



The Hamster, like most of the Rodentia, presents a cu- 

 rious example of extended instinct and bounded intelligence. 

 For man alone the future exists in the present. No other 

 animal is capable of foresight, or of conforming his actions 

 by anticipated knowledge to future contingencies. Other 

 animals exist but in the present, and they appear, in fact, 

 to have little or no perception of time. Nevertheless, the 

 Hamster, an animal feeble and disarmed, subsisting chiefly 

 on farinaceous matters, conceals itself in complicated bur- 

 rows, which it digs in the midst of the champaign country; 

 and, as if it foresaw the approach of winter, and the period 



