INTRODUCTION. 
XVI 
and administering to our help in the toils and labours 
of life : how wonderful is the mechanifm of thefe 
finely formed felf-moving beings, how complicated 
their fyftem, yet what unerring uniformity prevails 
through every tribe and particular fpecies ! the ef- 
fect we fee and contemplate, the caufe is invifible, 
incomprehenfible ; how can it be otherwife ? when 
we cannot fee the end or origin of a nerve or vein, 
while the divisibility of matter or fluid, is infinite. 
We admire the mechanifm of a watch, and the fa- 
bric of a piece of brocade, as being the production 
of art ; thefe merit our admiration, and muff excite 
our efteem for the ingenious artift or modifier ; but 
nature is the work, of God omnipotent; and an ele- 
phant, nay even this world, is comparatively but a 
very minute part of his works. If then the vifible, 
the mechanical part of the animal creation, the mere^ 
material part, is fo admirably beautiful, harmoni- 
ous, and incomprehenfible, what muff be the intel- 
lectual fyftem ? that inexpreffibly more eifential prin- 
ciple, which fecretly operates within ? that which 
animates the inimitable machines, which gives them 
motion, impowers them to act, fpeak, and perform, 
this muft be divine and immortal ? 
I am fenfible that the general opinion of philoso- 
phers, has diftinguifhed the moral fyftem of the 
brute creature from that of mankind, by an epithet 
which implies a mere mechanical impulfe, which 
leads and impels them to neceifary actions, without 
any premeditated defign or contrivance ; this we 
term inftinct, which faculty we fuppofe to be infe- 
rior to reafon in man. 
The parental and filial affections feem to be as 
ardent, their fenfibility and attachment as active and 
faithful, as thofe obferved in human nature. 
When travelling on the eaft coaft of the ifthmus 
of Florida, afeejiding the fouth Mufquito river, in 
a canoe, 
