392 



CLASS MAMMALIA. 



find a similar organic structure in other animals, we must 

 conclude that it was intended for the accommodation of a 

 principle of the same kind. Is this the fact, or is it not ? 

 The higher orders of mammalia have senses, nervous and 

 cerebral systems like our own. These were, then, obviously 

 intended as the media of action to the principle we speak 

 of. It is true that no animal is so well organized as man 

 for intellectual operations, though often much better for 

 physical. This is true, even with respect to external struc- 

 ture. So perfect an organization in this way was not ne- 

 cessary for the limited degree of the thinking principle. 

 But still there is quite enough of similarity and approxima- 

 tion in the organs of animals to our own, to warrant the 

 belief that they were intended to be acted on by a principle, 

 the same in kind, though different in degree. 



Although these remarks have already reached an extent to 

 which they are by no means entitled, we must still crave the 

 indulgence of the reader a little longer, while we hazard 

 a few additional observations on the nature of instinct, in 

 reference principally to what has been lately said by others 

 on the subject, and in which we shall avail ourselves of the 

 ingenious and profound reflections of M. F. Cuvier; who, 

 though too great a philosopher to pretend to remove the 

 mystery that attaches to this subject, has still presented us 

 with an hypothesis, which, to a certain extent, may serve 

 to explain its phenomena. 



Some philosophers have supposed that instinctive actions 

 depended on a particular form of the brain, and were in 

 some measure mechanical. But, asks M. F. Cuvier, what 

 is this form, and on what analogy does such a supposition 

 rest? It presupposes a description of proofs, of which we 

 are not in possession. We may doubtless find, in the struc- 

 ture of the brain of animals, certain forms, with which 

 their intellectual faculties may be connected ; but this no- 

 tion, however probable, is far from having been demon- 



