5576 Reason and Instinct. 



on the facts before mentioned, and that prepares ns to look for further 

 results of the same character and of indefinite number, variety and 

 interest, from the moment abler, closer, more concentrated and better 

 organized observation shall be brought to bear on the field of inquiry ; 

 results, in short, precisely analogous to those which have followed in 

 the field of astronomical inquiry, so close and so gloriously on the in- 

 vention and application of new and improved means of discovery, 

 whether mechanical or mental, or both. 



The practical bearing of the conclusion just adverted to on the 

 inquiry we are prosecuting would seem to be something of this sort. 

 If there is a connexion between reason and instinct in man, it is 

 reasonable to conclude there may be the same or a similar connexion 

 between reason and instinct in the brute ; and if that connexion always 

 exists in the human species, what ground is there for asserting that it 

 does not similarly exist in the brute family ? 



It is quite indisputable that instinct and reason do co-exist in man- 

 kind, although, at one period — the earliest, namely — of our being, the 

 latter is altogether latent ; so much so that instinct may, in a sense, be 

 said to precede reason : while still, no one would ever think of con- 

 tending that, because for weeks of its life the infant performs and can 

 perform none but purely instinctive actions, therefore it has no share in 

 the possession of the reasoning capacity. But further than this, when 

 the reasoning faculties begin to develope themselves and to be exer- 

 cised, instinct does not cease to operate. It is instinct which prompts 

 the child, which hitherto has derived its entire sustenance by the act 

 of sucking, to employ its jaws and gums in the attempted action of 

 biting the crust or cake put into its little hands; to drink from the 

 spoon or cup presented to its lips ; to use its little limbs in creeping 

 first, and then in its earliest tottering walk ; to employ its right hand 

 in preference to its left; and so on. And more than this, other 

 instincts, and of a different character, begin to be developed contem- 

 poraneously with the increasingly forcible development of the reasoning 

 or intellectual faculties. What is it which induces the little child to 

 manifest such evident pleasure when placed in company with other 

 children, and by a tacit, but very real, understanding and alliance 

 with them, add to its own resources, hitherto less ample than they 

 might be, of comfort, pleasure and well being ? Why, in the words of 

 an author, often referred to already, " the child is led to seek the 

 society of other children by an impulse which he cannot resist, and 

 which is independent of any intellectual operation." (Phys. Res. 

 p. 197.) 



