INSTINCT, SENSATION, AND INTELLltiENCE. | 



Lamarck, are on this account denominated apathic or insentient,* we 

 have the same reason for inferring that, though life is present, and, indeed, 

 in many instances pecuharly tenacious and vigorous, there is neither iff- 

 telhgence nor sensation ; and that the whole of the vital functions and 

 operations are performed, like the semblances of intelligence in the prece- 

 ding case, by the common law of instinct ; which, operating in different 

 \vays, in different organs^ and beings of different Structures, appertains to 

 living matter of every kind. 



These observations will apply to the vegetable as well as to the animal 

 kingdom ; for plants have a close analogy to the senseless tribes, the tubi 

 pores, madrepores, sponges, and infusory worms, we are now contem- 

 plating in their structure and origin, as well as in the limited range of 

 their powers ; these animals being in many instances equally simple in 

 their make, and equally destitute of loco-motion ; and equally propagating 

 their kinds by the generation of buds or bulbs, instead of by that of seeds 

 or eggs. Like these low kinds of animals, plants, moreover, are alto- 

 gether without organf?, either of sense or intelligence : and it is conse- 

 quently correct to infer, that they are equally without the faculties which 

 it is the sole property of such organs to develope. And hence, again, 

 however curious and astonishing the powers they occasionally evince, they 

 are powers that can only be resolved, as in the case of zoophytic worms, 

 into the ever present and ever active law of instinct or organized life. We 

 hear, indeed, at times, of the ascription of mental or corporeal passions to 

 vegetables ; of general feeling and ideas ; of love and languishment, and 

 desire and aversion. But all this is fancy, and proceeds from an erroneous 

 and contracted view of the general nature of the law of instinct, and its 

 extraordinary power of supplying the place of sense and reason, where 

 these, or the organs in which they reside, are not present. We hear, in 

 like manner, occasionally, of the brain, stomach, lungs, and nerves of 

 vegetables ; but all this is still more imaginary than the preceding ; it is a 

 mere fancy built upon a mere fancy : nobody has ever been capable of 

 pointing out the probable or even possible seat of such organs, and they 

 have only been idly conjectured because the faculties to which they give 

 rise have been conjectured antecedently. 



Is there then no such thing as instinctive feeling ? — a term in every one's 

 mouth, and which every one till he tries, supposes he comprehends 1 

 What but an instinctive feeling is the love of life, the dread of death, the 

 economy of pairing, and the desire of progeny ? 



Wherever feeling exists, these, in a certain sense, may unquestionably 

 be called instinctive feelings ; but it should be remembered that the ex- 

 pression is, in every instance, of a compound character, and involves two 

 distinct ideas, which may exist either separsitely or conjointly: and we 

 have the same reason for \xsmg. ihe Y^hrd^se instinctive intelligmce 2,s is- 

 stinctive feeling: for we can only mean, or ought only to mean, instinct 

 combined with intelligence^ or instinct combined with feeling according to 

 the nature of the case before us. 



Combinations of this kind, indeed, are not unfrequent ; and L shall pre- 

 sently proceed to produce examples of them : but it becomes necessary to 

 observe in the present place, that all the operations we are now adverting 

 to, and which are usually characterized as instinctive feelings, as self-pre- 

 servation, attachment to life, resistance to destruction, reproduction of the 



' * Philosorphie Zoologiquc, 



31 



