5744 Reason and histincl. 



no further account; but by reason, by which I understand, in this 

 present usage, all the lessons and mastery of experience, all the pro- 

 cesses of thought of which he has distinct apprehension and can give 

 distinct account. In all that is most important and peculiar to him 

 he proceeds, for instance in making and reading a book, in a manner 

 which would be impossible without an experience, without an instruc- 

 tion, such as that with which we are familiar, and of which account 

 can be given more or less exact and philosophical. With regard to 

 animals it is not so : we say they proceed by instinct because we 

 know not what or how far they observe, or anticipate, remember and 

 infer. If the bee, the ant, the bird or beaver, in the processes pecu- 

 liar to the individuals and to the races, learn anything or much by 

 experience, we are ignorant of it. To what extent they instruct one 

 another or communicate with one another, we are for the most part 

 utterly ignorant, notwithstanding some very curious and rare pheno- 

 mena, which excite attention and interest only or very much by their 

 exceptional and unexpected character. 



I shall only observe, further, that it is a very great and increasing 

 fault in the loose popular writings of the day that emotions and ideas, 

 powers and tendencies characteristic of man, as we are familiar with 

 him in a state of society now called civilized, and certainly much ad- 

 vanced when compared with the condition of savages such as the 

 Bushmen, are constantly spoken of as instinctive, merely because 

 they are common. It is forgotten that such emotions and ideas, 

 powers and tendencies are only characteristic of and peculiar to the 

 civilized, educated and formed man, restrained by law and assisted 

 by the arts and habits of a particular condition of social life. 



Again, the functions of the bodily frame which are not subject to 

 the will, and the many wants and feelings growing out of that frame, 

 and even the endowments of the mind, such as memory and anticipa- 

 tion, are frequently, but loosely, called instinctive, because they are 

 natural, and they are, like all that belongs to man, the general gift of 

 that Providence by whom we and all animated creatures are wouder- 

 fully made. We breathe, we digest, we see, we hear, we sleep, feed, 

 move and cry, it may be said instinctively, meaning naturally, without 

 knowing and considering how. The beasts do the same. But when 

 we would speak of what is peculiar to man, as distinguishing him 

 from other animals, it is a kind of careless and injudicious speech, 

 well enough for those who are not anxious to learn and know, to 

 weigh and consider; not enough for the cautious inquirer. When 

 the anatomist and physiologist examines more closely the lungs and 



