Reason and Instinct. 



6529 



comparatively wild life — though still such only in a very slight degree 

 — has upon the mind of that species of sheep, as compared with the 

 larger, heavier, more inert and carefully tended Leicester sheep, a few 

 of which are kept here and there on the lowlands. The frequent in- 

 stances of watchfulness, in the former, speedily detecting the presence 

 of a human or canine intruder, the singular sound, half snort, half hiss, 

 with which they express their alarm and dissatisfaction, the impatient 

 stamp with their fore foot after following close on the strange sharp 

 " Hist !" — as it sounds — all are hints to show what they would soon 

 become, if they were left for a few generations unbullied by sheep- 

 dogs, unshepherded by their owners. But even in them Instinct is 

 made to give place to a sort of Intelligence, superinduced over their 

 natural endowment with that faculty. Once or twice last year I. crossed 

 the moor during the lambing season. On one of these occasions my 

 attention was drawn to a lamb that had certainly been dropped during 

 the hour and a half or two hours which had elapsed since my previous 

 passage. The little creature had full use of its limbs ; and, at my 

 approach, it bounded off with every symptom of alarm. Here was 

 the instinct of Self-preservation evidently in operation. I whistled ; 

 its alarm was increased tenfold, and it hurried far beyond its mother 

 to escape what, its instinct told it, might be danger. The parent ewe 

 in the mean time stood quietly grazing within a few feet of me, taking 

 no further notice than just to raise her head for a moment when I 

 whistled, and emitting a bleat of summons or recall, as she noticed her 

 lamb's hurried flight from her side. 



I may be permitted perhaps further to add, in reference to the 

 changes in size and form of the skulls of the animals above noticed, 

 which had, from a state of domestication, reverted to a condition all 

 whose elements were the same as those of their original wild condi- 

 tion, that the alterations were such as to give scope for an increased 

 volume, and, conceivably at least, advanced development of the higher 

 organs of the brain. And I think the inference fairly is, not only that 

 their wild life required an increase of Intelligence in addition to the 

 exercise of their instinct in all its pristine force, but also and conse- 

 quently that thus one more support is rendered to our theory of the 

 necessary co-existence and co-operation of Instinct and Reason. 



There is one matter — which unquestionably forms a part, and an 

 important part, of the subject of our inquiry — which I have not 

 touched upon, and which I confess 1 feel myself quite incompetent to 

 handle: I mean the Instinct of Insects. The difficulty arises in the 

 apparent Intelligence, often times great Intelligence, in so many of 

 XVII. 2 F 



