6044 



Reason and Instinct. 



them, and no less in that which was published in two parts last year 

 (Zool. 5452 and bb^b), I had once thought of prefixing at least a part 

 of these definitions to the second paper; and possibly I misjudged in 

 not doing so, seeing so considerable a space of time had elapsed since 

 the publication of the first paper; not that, if I had done so, I should 

 have obviated all Mr. Tagarl's criticisms* (Zool. 5737), or perhaps 

 any considerable portion, but at all events the subject might have 

 been rendered clearer to those readers who had not my first paper to 

 refer to. 



With deference to Mr. Tagart, I venture to think the definitions 

 just quoted are sufficient for the purpose of a writer, who makes no 

 claim to be considered scientific, in a ' Popular Magazine of Natural 

 History.' I am not careful to contend with him whether Instinct and 

 Reason are or are not " terms of ignorance." 1 submit that if w^e 

 take the former to imply the origin, in the brute, of action upon ideas 

 implanted by the Creator in its mind, and independently of expe- 

 rience, of instruction, of deliberation, of any distinctly proposed end 

 in view, — and this is what our definitions convey, — " we know," quite 

 well enough, what w^e are talking about," when we use that term, to 

 hope that our inquiries or discussions on the subject involved may 

 lead to some practical result. We talk of electricity or the electric 

 fluid; we talk, too, of magnetism or the magnetic fluid : are not both 

 Electricity and Magnetism as much " terms of ignorance " f as Instinct 

 or Reason ? What do we know of either that we cannot, after the 

 same manner, predicate of Instinct? In either case we observe cer- 

 tain phenomena; we observe, further, that these phenomena recur in 

 obedience to certain laws : the former testify to the existence of a 



The paper in question appears to have drawn forth notices from three contribu- 

 tors to the 'Zoologist.' That from the pen of Mr. Couch gives an exphmation which, 

 it appeared to him, was rendered necessary, bj the form of my quotation from his 

 book on Instinct. The other two are critical. Capt. Hadfield's stands first in order 

 of time : the matter at issue between that gentleman and myself depends on the 

 meaning of the phrase " information properly so called," and of the two words "allu- 

 sions " and " references ; " and therefore, as one good turn deserves another, to requite 

 him for referring me to Montagu's ' Ornithological Dictionary,' I beg to refer him to 

 any tolerable English Dictionary. With Mr. Tagart, who imposingly proclaims his 

 " style and titles " as a " logician and metaphysician," and is therefore both champion 

 and herald in his own single person, I must deal in the text. 



t "We are totally ignorant ... of the manner of the existence of electricity in 

 bodies, whether it be a material agent, vibrations of ether, or merely a property of 

 matter.''— ♦S'omcrrz7/e's Physical Sciences, 301. Precisely the same must be said of 

 magnetism. — See Id. 342. 



