150 HUMBLE CREATURES. 



craftiness of disposition, and a constant recourse to 

 stratagem. This is another striking example of the 

 unity that is presented by the progressive stages of 

 mental development ; and the close resemblance ex- 

 isting between the qualities that characterize the per- 

 fect types of the lower Vertebrata and the attributes 

 of the imperfect man, clearly denotes that these 

 psychical properties belong to one and the same pro- 

 vince in the realm of mind. This lower phase of 

 reason may with propriety be termed "iustinctive 

 reason," or " instinctive intelligence* ;" for, although 

 the creatures thus endowed possess a certain degree 



* This term lias been applied by Coleridge ('Aids to Re- 

 flection/ p. 181, Pickering, 1839) to tlie nature of tbe Bee and 

 other insects, in consequence of the power displayed by them 

 of " adapting the proper means to proximate ends according to 

 varjong circumstances ;" and his inference is drawn more espe- 

 cially from their devices employed in the construction of their 

 dwellings. This definition of intelligence does not, however, 

 appear to us sufiiciently clear ; unless Coleridge attributed that 

 quality to the Hermit Crab and to numerous other creatures that 

 have the power either to appropriate objects ready formed as 

 dwellings, or to construct them from various materials, according 

 to circumstances, but which rank very low in the animal scale. 

 Availing ourselves of the "aids to reflection" afforded by the 

 latest and most eminent psychologists, we conclude that before 

 such actions as those referred to by Coleridge, apparently indi- 

 cative of intelligence, can be considered to be truly so, it must 

 be shown that the creatures are conscious that they are apply- 

 ing the proper means to the proximate ends. The line of 

 demarcation is, however, exceedingly faint and difficult to di- 

 stinguish, as we have repeatedly declared in the foregoing ob- 

 servations on instinct and reason, and Coleridge's reflections 

 on the subject, beautiful though they be, are unfortunately not 

 calculated to render it more easily definable. 



