QUADRUPEDS. 
349 
tions, without any intentional adaptation of means to ends on 
the partof the individual; although such adaptiveness doubt- 
less exists in the actions themselves, being a consequence 
of the original constitution of the nervous system of each 
animal performing them. It cannot be doubted by any 
person who has attentively studied the characters of the 
lower animals, that many of them possess psychical en- 
dowments, corresponding with those which we term the 
Intellectual powers and Moral feelings in Man ; but in 
proportion as these are undeveloped, in that proportion is 
the animal under the dominion of those instinctive im- 
pulses, which, so far as its own consciousness is concerned, 
may be designated as blind and aimless, but which aie 
ordained by the Creator for its protection from danger, 
and for the supply of its natural wants. 1 he same may 
be said of the Human infant, or of the Idiot, in whom the 
reasoning powers are tindeveloped. 
* “Ptincip. of Comp. Physiol." (Ed. 1854). p. 69S.— We cannot refrain from 
quoting tfro same writer’s interesting marginal note to the above passage : 
“ The highest development of the purely instinctive tendencies, with the least 
interference of intelligence, is to ho found in the class of Insects ; and above 
all in the order Rffmemiteru, and in that of Nmmlenj, which is nearly allied 
to it It is, of course, impossible to draw the line between the two sources of 
action with complete precision : but we observe, in the Mbits of Dees and other 
social insects, every indication Of the limitation Of the power of choice, and of 
the domination of instinctive propensities called into action by sensations. 
Thus, although Bees display the greatest art iu the construction ot their habi- 
tations, and execute a variety of curious contrivances beautifully adapted to 
variations in their circumstances, the constancy with which individuals and 
communities will act alike under the same conditions, appears to preclude the 
idea of their possessing any inherent power of spontaneously departing from 
the line of action to which they are tied down by the constitution of their nerv- 
ous system. We do not find one individual or one community clever and an- 
other stupid • nor do we ever witness a disagreement or any appearance of in- 
decision as to’ the course of action to be pursued by the several members of any 
republic The actions of all tend to one common end, simply because they are 
performed in respondeuce to impulses which all alike share. For a Bee to be 
