THE BEE. 139 



These, and similar actions necessary for the de- 

 velopment and growth of the individual, are prompted 

 hy hunger, or some other natural want ; and their 

 analogues may he found in every living creature, he- 

 ginning with these humble forms of life and ending 

 with man. And mark, reader, how strikingly the 

 principle is here illustrated that we quoted with re- 

 ference to the comparative physical and mental de- 

 velopment of animals. The instinct that prompts the 

 Actinia, one of the lowest forms of animal life, to 

 stretch out its tentacles in search of prey in the same 

 mechanical manner throughout its whole life, and 

 which is therefore one of the mental characteristics of 

 its perfect nature, this instinct, we say, is repeated, 

 with hut httle variation, in the human infant during 

 the earliest stage of its existence, when it turns to 

 the mother's breast for food as mechanically as the 

 Polype extends its feelers in the water with the same 

 object, — ^namely, that of obtaining a supply of nou- 

 rishment. 



As before remarked, we are not going to attempt a 

 formal classification of the mental attributes of animals; 

 but the most appropriate term that occurs to us, as a 

 designation of this class of psychical properties, is 

 ''natural or animal iostinct," by reason of its imme- 

 diate relation to aU the most urgent requirements of 

 the animal nature. 



But as we travel upwards in the animal scale, and 

 look around us amongst the insect races, we cannot 

 fail to observe in these a class of actions prompted by 



