INSTINCT OF ANIM&L*. SOI 



Neither has It any thing in common with materialism ; for, materialism, 

 whatever idea we entertain of the intimate nature of the 

 sentient principle, we are obliged to confess, that it expe- 

 riences sensations only through the medium of the brain and 

 nerves. 



Finally, neither is it more closely allied than any other or fatalism. 

 to fatalism : for, every action being determined, either by 

 a present sensation, or by the recollection of a past sen- 

 sation, or by the hope or fear of a future sensation, whe- 

 ther these sensations be external or internal docs not alter 

 the state of the question. 



Mr. Dupont however appears to have been induced, to Mr. Dupont re- 

 reject every sort of instinct indiscriminately, chisfly by the jects instinct - 

 fear of splitting against one of these rocks. 



He begins by showing, that the actions of animals of the His system, 

 higher orders, as quadrupeds and birds, result from a com- 

 bination of experience with their corporal faculties. In this 

 there is no difficulty, as it is a point on which all naturalists 

 are agreed. He then endeavours to explain physically how 

 these animals, and children themselves, learn to suck. He 

 shows, that several species are capable of uttering sounds 

 sufficiently numerous to form a very complicated language ; 

 and he asserts, that he has observed them employ some of 

 these sounds under circumstances so similar, as to leave 

 scarcely any doubt of their attaching to them a fixed signi- 

 fication. His observations on this head are very interesting. 



He likewise endeavours to prove, that various species are Animals capa- 

 capable of improving their operations under certain circum- ble of im P rove * 

 stances: though perhaps the naturalist will object to him, 

 that he has sometimes taken different species for the same 

 specks improved. Thus the architect beaver of Canada is 

 not precisely the same as the burrowing beaver of theRhine; 

 and the social spider of Paraguay is not the same with our 

 solitary spiders. 



It may be supposed, that the greatest difficulty Mr. Du- Difficultyin the 

 pont has to encounter is in explaining, how insects have c-,st .?. f inf ; ects 



r * °' providing for 



learned those wonderful precautions, with which they pro- theiryoung. 

 vide a shelter and proper nourishment for the egg, which 

 they and sometimes even others are about to lay, and the 

 maggot, that is to be produced from it; though frequently 



these 



