Reason and Instinct, 



6089 



driven to seek some newer and fitter abiding place. The illustrations 

 of our first position, up to this point adduced, cannot be without 

 weight to one who thoughtfully and dispassionately considers them. 

 There are, however, others of a somewhat similar, or at least analogous 

 description, which seem to me both interesting and instructive: I 

 mean such as may be derived from observation of the habits or powers 

 of the young savage. 



Both the eye and the ear among savage or uncivilized tribes are 

 apt to be, so to speak, if not in intention, yet in effect, much more 

 carefully trained and strengthened than the other organs of sense ; 

 and to such a pitch of delicacy and keenness do the senses of sight 

 and hearing attain, that a white man is often astonished at the power 

 evinced by both. It is not that there is any anatomical difference in 

 the eye or ear of the Savage and the citizen of London or Paris, or 

 that the natural organ of him who never heard of a telescope is more 

 highly organised than that of the man who rejoices in his Dollond, but 

 simply the result of practice or use ; but it is the practice or use, not 

 of individuals, but of generations and for ages ; for it must be ob- 

 served that the young savage is to a great degree born with this keen 

 vision and sense of hearing. And not only so, without any special 

 course of teaching and training, any cumbersome ceremonial of 

 " precept and example too," he begins — long before either years or 

 stature place him in advance of the period or pursuits of childhood 

 — to exercise the powers by which his father is so mysteriously 

 enabled to track the, to other eyes save his own, invisible footsteps of 

 the man or the wild beast, to tell how long since it passed, its stature, 

 its peculiarities of gesture and gait, may be its very sex and age. 

 Nor is he at a loss in the forest : like his father, his compass is 

 nature-given, and he threads his unfaltering way through forest 

 thickets and tree-canopied shades, that one would think might baffle 

 any save one well skilled in following the directions of the unerring 

 needle. 



Yet again, the young of any quadruped the first time it finds itself 

 plunged into water, if it be of age to have the strength for the re- 

 quisite exertion, instinctively makes the necessary motions for sup- 

 porting itself on the surface, and directing its course to the margin ; 

 swims, as we express it. So too, where the uncivilized people dwell 

 near the coast or on the river bank, the young savage is customarily 

 found, when scarcely yet more than a mere infant, able to swim, and 

 even delighting to sport in the water. The following testimony is 

 noteworthy : — " One day I had repaired to the stream for the purpose 

 XVI. 2 H 



