
KIDD’S OWN JOURNAL. 285 

hexagonal form, which is invariably adopted by 
the insect in the construction, is the very best for 
containing the greatest quantity of its sweet food 
in the smallest possible space. The animal does 
all this without knowledge or experience to direct 
it—the first it forms is as perfect as the last, and 
bees have constructed their cells in this and no 
other form, since the creation of the world. 
In the same way, when the wasp brings home 
a number of small grubs, and is careful to place 
them in the hole where she had previously depo- 
sited her eggs, and only brings-such a number of 
these grubs as will be sufficient to maintain the 
worm which that egg, when hatched, will produce 
—though this wasp never saw an egg produce a 
worm, and it is certain will be dead herself before 
that worm will be in existence, yet is she taking, 
by this means, the surest method of providing for 
the life of her future offspring—by thus storing up 
for it a supply of food to serve it while unable to 
provide for itself. To these operations the animal 
is directed neither by observation nor experience 
—but works in the dark, and under the influence 
of certain irresistible propensities that appertain 
to its instinctive nature. The operations of reason 
are very different from all this. Here we find 
means adapted to ends ; and these means varying, 
as observation and experience suggest, the more 
effectually to attain the design; and as different 
individuals have different capacities for obser- 
vation, and have reached different degrees of 
skill, a great diversity is found amongst men in 
the process they adopt. In fact, we never find 
two men work precisely alike, nor.does the 
same individual evince at all times the same 
degree of skill. The rational animal, under the 
guidance of his noble faculty, is capable of un- 
limited improvement in every work of art; and 
though he may begin with building himself a 
domicile more rude and unfit for his purpose 
than the habitation the beaver forms for itself, 
he ends with erecting a palace replete with 
every accommodation! But instinct is indepen- 
dent of experience, and borrows nothing from 
reason. The spider forms its web, and the lion 
pismire digs its little pit, before the former has 
tasted a fly, or the latter an ant; even before they 
knew that such insects existed. The young bee, 
the moment it has escaped from the chrysalis 
state, begins to expand and try its wings; sallies 
forth alone from the hive, alights upon the proper 
flowers, extracts from them the proper juice; 
collects the farina, kneads it into a little pellet, de- 
posits thisin its proper receptacles in its feet; returns 
back to the hive, and then delivers up the honey 
and wax which it has collected and manufactured. 
Thus all bees act at the present day; and thus 
they acted six thousand years ago, when they col- 
lected their honey from the flowers of Eden! 
The distinction then between reason and instinct 
is marked enough. Under the impulse of the 
former, the actions of animals are invariably the 
same under the same circumstances—and in every 
individual of their species throughout all genera- 
tions. But the actions of the latter are varied 
according to the greater or lesser cultivation of some 
of their rational powers. Men’s actions are the 
result of some previous intellectual process, and 
proceed from motives acting on the will. But in- 
stinctive acts are prompted by a blind impulse, 
and are not under the control of volition. 
There can be no doubt, however, that in many 
of the inferior animals there is often found a 
mixture of some portion of rational power and 
instinctive propensity conjoined. Volumes may 
be filled with these instances, sufficiently authenti- 
cated, and some of them are both amusing and 
extraordinary. It will be sufficient to mention 
one. A medical man, practising in the North of 
England, was one day out partridge-shooting with 
a friend, who had a favorite pointer with him. It 
happened that this poor dog had his leg broken by 
some accident, and his master was about to shoot 
him. The surgeon interposed, and begged he 
might have the dog for the purpose of attempting 
acure of the fracture. This being granted, the 
animal was subjected to the usual treatment ; and 
life and limb were, in consequence, saved. Some 
time afterwards, while this medical man was 
sitting in his surgery, he heard a scratching at 
the door; and on going to see the cause of it, he 
was surprised to find his old patient, the pointer, 
with another dog, who had had his leg fractured, 
and whom, it would seem, the animal had taken 
the liberty of introducing to his surgeon, that his 
friend might have the benefit of the same 
treatment which had succeeded so well in his own 
case ! 
In man the instinctive principle is modified by 
the intellectual of his nature. In infancy, the one 
predominates over the other, as this sovereignty 
of instinct then is absolutely necessary for his 
safety. At that period of his existence, it would 
be useless to make his preservation dependent on 
reflection, which is too slow a process to be avail- 
able. © Were the child obliged to find out the 
proper mode of procuring food from the nurse’s 
breast, and to await the result of certain trials 
before it could decide on the best, it would pro- 
bably be starved before it could come to any con- 
clusion on the subject. Nature has, therefore, 
taken the affair into her own hands, by giving the 
child an instinct, by which it at once, without 
reason, reflection, or experience, effects its object 
in a manner as perfect as the most refined philo- 
sophy could have taught it. 
But as the life of man advances, his intellectual 
powers become gradually developed, and the 
instincts become weaker and more under the 
control of his judgment. It is, indeed, a beautiful 
and interesting spectacle often to contemplate those 
instinctive propensities and feelings of his organi- 
sation, thrust, as it were, under the power of his 
moral and intellectual nature, made subservient to 
his volition, or suspended altogether in presence 
of the more commanding influence of a sound 
reason or determined will. As in the following 
examples :— ’ 
When we observe some pious individual em- 
ployed in the administration of the consolations of 
religion, in the abode of disease and death ; where 
at every breath he is sure to inhale the poison of 
some malignant fever; we may be sure that his 
moral resolution has overcome the instinctive dread 
of death. Or we may picture to ourselves a 
young mother, in the noontide of her youth and 
beauty, seated at the cradle of her sick infant; 
and there, hour after hour, she will sit, negligent 
of her own health, and (what is often considered 


