276 T H E P H 1 L O S O P H Y 



Nature has unqueftionably attached pleafure to all the neceflary 

 fundlions of animals. But this pleafure cannot be confidered as the 

 original caufe.of any particular adion ; for the experiment muft be 

 made before the animal can difcover whether the refult is to be 

 agreeable or dlfagreeable. The truth is, that Nature has beftowed 

 on the minds of all animated creatures a number of laws or inftindts 

 perfedlly accommodated to the fpecies, and which irrefiftibly com- 

 pel them to perform certain adtions. The effedts of thefe laws we 

 perceive: But the caufes, or the modes by which they operate on 

 animal minds, are infcrutable. We may and niuft admire, but we 

 can never penetrate the myfteries of Nature. 



Bonnet, and feme other naturalifts, Imagine they are exhibiting 

 the caufes of that flrong and mutual attachment between parents 

 and their ofFt-pring, when they tell us, that, in man, and quadrupeds, 

 and birds, the mother is fond of her young, becaufe their natural 

 adtions give rife to agreeable fenfations ; that, from the flrudture of 

 the mammae, a gentle, but pleafant fenfation, is excited by the ac- 

 tion of fucking ; that the mother is often incommoded by too great 

 a quantity of milk, and that fucking relieves her ; that the young 

 love their mother, becaufe £he feeds, protedts, and communicates to 

 them a cherilhing warmth ; that, among the feathered tribes, and 

 particularly thole which fit upon their young, by the gentle motions 

 of the little ones, an agreeable fenfation is excited in the belly of the 

 mother, which is then frequently deprived of feathers. All thefe 

 fources of reciprocal pleafure may be true; But fiill they are only 

 effedts, and not original caufes, of filial and parental affedlion ; for 

 that mutual attachment exifts the moment after the young animals 

 come into the world, and, of courfe, previous to all experience of 

 titillation, of heat, of habit, or of any other circumftances that may, 

 perhaps, contribute to ftrengthen or prolong the exertion of the pri- 

 mary 



