290 BRITISH AND EUROPEAN BIRDS. 



Connexion 'twixt effect and cause. 



He, at one stride, the inference draws — 



'Tis Instinct, and beyond all laws. 



useful, and lasting, I make no apology for questioning the pro- 

 priety of the use of the term Instinct when applied to many of 

 the actions of birds as well as to those of other animals, com- 

 monly termed the brute creation. Pope says, 



How instinct varies in the grovelling swine. 



Compared half-reasoning elephant with thine ! 



'Twixt that and reason what a nice barrier! 



For ever separate yet for ever near! 



Remembrance and reflection how allied ; 



What thin partitions sense from thought divide! 



Essay on Man. 

 So thin, indeed, as frequently not to be divided at all ! These 

 lines appear to me to contain a very small portion of philosophy ; 

 little that is agreeable to Fact, upon which all true philosophy 

 must be founded : for, according to the doctrine here laid 

 down, brutes do not reason. Why not ? If Reason be a process, 

 (not a faculty,) by which different ideas or things are compared, their 

 fitness or unfitness perceived, and conclusions drawn from such com- 

 parisons and perceptions, which I think it is, then it will be found 

 that most brutes, including birds, reason more or less, the intel- 

 lectual difference between these and man consisting principally 

 in degree ; the degree is undoubtedly great; but the probability 

 is that, from their inability to communicate many of their 

 thoughts to us, they all know much more than they can show. 

 The terms half-reasoning applied to the elephant are peculiarly 

 inappropriate; the elephant, compared with many other qua- 

 drupeds, reasons well ; so do the dog, the horse, and many 

 other animals whose actions we have an opportunity of atten- 

 tively observing, not omitting to name some of the birds. 



When the action of a brute animal appears to arise without 

 any apparent process of reasoning, we call it instinct; but if 



