INSTINCT, 



■fated, as the •pimlthment due to his injuftice and temerity, 

 ytils Faft is mentioned in the " Amufcment Piii'ofophique, 

 'f?c.." of Fatl)ei- Bougeant. I'liei'e is alio an inltance ol" it 

 ill the " Gc;nt!ciVian's .Magazine ;" iu which we find alio 

 fomp intereiUng pai-ticul?r3 concerning a raven kept, fomc 

 years ago, at the Red I^ion at Hiingerlqi-d. Tlic account 

 is, however, too long to be tranfcribed, although vary much 

 to our pivfer.t p'lirpofe. We rccolka feeingi a few) ears 

 ago, a very fenfible cat, vvhicli, when out at night, woii'd 

 tap regularly at the windows, if the doors and Ihutters v.ere 

 clofed ; knowing by experience, that fiie was often let in at 

 the windows by day. And wIm: i.-. Ilu' a ti:".i,i- ; net oi l.tr 

 ■ reafouing and fagacity, (lie w ' 

 windows, when dilappoinl' ■' 

 night was far advanced. /\ ■ : - 



qtiainted, had a tame bird, wiiich llh- v.;!;:n tlic i::)!)'! '.>t 

 letting out of its cage about her room every day. One 

 morning as it was picking up fomc crumbs of brcvul off tlie 

 carpet, her cat, wlio always before fhcwcd givat kindnefs 

 for the bird, fei/.ed it on a ludden, and jumped, wi'Ji it in 

 her mouth, upon a table. The lad;', alarmed fjr the iate of 

 her favourite, on turning about, ob'ervLd that ihe door had 

 been left open, and that a (Irange cat had ju!l come into the 

 room. After turning it out, her own cat came down from 

 -her place of fafety, and dropped the bird, vvithout injuring, 

 if we may fo cxprefs it, a hair of its licad. Cowper's beau- 

 tiful little poem on the dog and the water lily, gives an 

 amiable inltance of the reafoning of the lower animals, 

 which has been fo fweetly, and yet with fuch elegant fim- 

 plicity, told in verfe, that we cannot think of melting it 

 down into the languid coldnefi of profe. When we fee 

 brutes thus ufiiig means to obtain their ends, as well as our- 

 felves, mull we not conclude ihat they reafon ? When the 

 cat watclies fur hours in filent expectation of her prey ; 

 when the hound traverfes a wide extent of country in the 

 chace ; wlien the meaneft infeCl that we tread on, drags its 

 wounded frame to-a fafe retreat ; thiy fliew as much perfe- 

 vering voluntarlty as man can boaft. No animal manducates 

 its food, or laps its drink, from the mere plealure of the mo- 

 tions. It ufes them as means for an end ; and if hunger and 

 thirll were not felt, they would be confidered as labours, 

 and would not be performed. "Animals (fays profefTor 

 Stewart, -nearly in tiie words of Mr. Hume,) arc left to 

 make fome fmail acqinfitions, by experience, as fufficiently 

 appears in certain trii.'cs, from the fagacity of the old, when 

 contrafted with the ignorance of tlie young ; aild from the 

 effects wliicli may be produced on many of them, by difci- 

 pliiie and education." — " It feems as evident to me," fays 

 Mr." Locke, "that fome animrds do, in certain inllances, 

 reafon, as that they have fenfe ; but it is only in particular 

 ideas; juil as they receive them from the fenfes. I'liey are 

 the belt of tliem tied up within thofe narrow boiHids, and 

 have not, as I think, the faculty to enlarge therii, by any 

 kind of abtlraction." The obfervations which Mr. Locke 

 makes in this part of his work on tlie faculties of tbe brutes, 

 •as compare'd with ojr's, are in general wery jnll and worthy 

 of pcriifal. But there are feveral facts, which oiir limits do 

 not allow 'us to Hate, froin which it is evident that brutes on 

 feme occafions exhibit proofs of the power of abitraftion. 

 That an animal can be.capable of gratitude and aifeftion for 

 its mafter, without reafoning, can, vni think, hardly be 

 maintained. Frojn the njaller's prpte<ftion and kindnefs, it 

 infers that it is under- obligations to him, which it owes not 

 •to another. Before concluding our remarks oh the reafoning 

 of animals, we may quote one imlance of the affedtion of a 

 dog, which we think has never bxn furp-iffed. And we 

 do it the iuof6 readily> as the circumibnce has been very 



poetically defcribed by an author, who; witii .all his' grtaS 

 meriis, fcldom writes better than upon this occafion. The 

 inftance to which We allude i.s very i(iterelling, from the in- 

 cident to which it relates, the death of an unfortunate young 

 gentleman of promifmg talents, who perilhed, b^ji loiing his 

 wr.y, in the fpring cf 1805, on the mountain Hellvellyn. 

 His remains vs ere found three months afterwards, guarded 

 iiiU by a terrier bitch, that had long been ttie companion of 

 his fuiitary rambles. This lad circumftance in particular, ia 

 very finely alluded to by Mr. Scott, in his little piece on the 

 fubject, to which he has given the name of Hellvellyn. A» 

 tlie few inltances novv lUtcd are fufficicnt, and fpeak fully 

 i' r tli.-i;,l. I,-;, we fl-iall not add to the number, nor Hop to 

 : aki- .i:i'; runmients upon them. But it has been aflced, if 

 \:v allin, n.il'in to the lower animals, in what does the dif- 

 ference bel-.\ecn them and man conlill ? Do their tacultie* 

 and our's differ in degree, or in kind ? To this queftion we 

 have not the vanity of thhiking that we are abie to give a 

 fatisfadlory anfwer ; we may, hov.-ever, offer a few remarks. 

 We fee tliat animals learn much from experieixe and obferva- 

 tion as well as ourfelves. It is thui they learn the nature, or 

 the properties, of the objefts that furround them, fuch as 

 heights, deptlis, diftances, &c. " A horfe that has been ac- 

 cullomed to the field, becomes acquainted with tiie proper 

 height which he can leap, and wiU never attempt what ex- 

 ceeds his force and abihty. An old greyhound will trull the 

 more fatiguing part of the chace to the younger, and will 

 place himfcflf fo as to meet the hai'e in her doubles ; nor are 

 the conjedlures which he forms on this occalion, founded in 

 any thing but his obfervation and experience." By training 

 and education we can teach our domellic animals much more 

 than they would ever learn, if left to themfelves and their 

 ovi'n obfervation. If we put them in new iituations, we fee 

 that their acquired knowledge is mucli increafed and im- 

 proved, and that by a proper and ftrift dilciphne we can 

 train them up to a mode of acting 'direftly contrary to their 

 iniliniSls, or natural propcnfities. If thefe obfervations be 

 jull, (and wc cannot fee how they can be quclUoued,} it fol- 

 lows, that in the lower animals inftinft is fufceptible of very 

 great and llrikir.g modifications. To produce thefe, how- 

 ever, ftridl culture and difcipline arc neceffary ; without 

 which, we do not think, that their own experience and obfer- 

 vation would ever teach them to deviate much from the line 

 of acting chalked out to them by their inftinds, or original 

 propenlilics. And' accordingly we agree with a remark of 

 Mr. Hume's, "that though animals learn many parts of 

 their knov/ledge from obfervation, there are alfo many parts 

 of it which they derive from the original hand of nature, 

 which much exceed the (hare of capacity they poffefs on ordi- 

 nary occalions, and in wiiich they improve /Me or nothing, by 

 the longeit pradice and experience." Yet, notwithitanding 

 this fulceptibility of improvement by culture and education 

 in the lower animals, we can never obferve in them any thing 

 approaching to the knowledge and fagacity of man. They 

 do not, like him, heap obfervation upon obfervation, they 

 do not improve by the experience of the paft, nor manifell 

 any indications of a regard to futurity ; their manufactures 

 are always llationary, and all their acquifitions of knowledge 

 periih with the individuid- They never learn the arts of man ; 

 for inftance, though often as fond of artificial heat as we are, 

 not one of them has been ever known to lay a piece of coal 

 or of wood upon the lire to keep it from going out. All 

 this may be owing to their want of language ; but it feems 

 llrange, that they poflefs not this art, as fomc of themfeem 

 to have organs of articulation, as perfeft as our's. They 

 ufe means, it is true, for obtaining their ends fometimes ; 

 but thefe in general are very fimple and obvious. They rea- 

 fon 



