478 
MISCELLANEA. 
Tread softly — my spirit is joyous no more, 
A northern aurora, it shone and is o’er ; 
The tears will fall fast as I gather the rein, 
And a long look reverts to yon shadowy plane. 
****** 
****** 
There is more of it, but nothing to the purpose of the present 
history. It cost me something to transcribe this, so vividly is the 
past recalled by it. Would to God I might more fully devote 
to His service every day of the life so wonderfully preserved 
by Him ! 
Illustrations of Instinct. 
By Richard Whately, D.D. 
A MAN builds a house from reason — a bird builds a nest from 
instinct; and no one would say that the bird, in this, acted from 
reason. But, in other instances, man not only does the same 
things as the brutes, but does them from the same kind of impulse, 
which should be called instinctive, whether in man or brute. 
And again — several things are done by brutes which are evidently 
not instinctive, but, to all appearance, no less rational than human 
acts; being not only the same actions, but done from the same 
impulse. I shall not at present inquire what is called reason, any 
more than what is denominated instinct. I would only say, that 
several things, which are allowed by every one to be acts of 
reason when done by a man, are done by brutes manifestly under 
a similar impulse : I mean such things as brutes learn to do, 
either by their own unaided experience, or as taught by man. 
Docility is evidently characteristic of reason. To talk of an 
elephant, a horse, or a dog, doing by instinct such things as it has 
been taught , would be as absurd as to talk of a child’s learning to 
read and write by instinct. 
But, moreover, brutes are, in many instances, capable of learn- 
ing even what they have not been taught by man. They have 
been found able to combine, more or less, the means of accom- 
plishing a certain end, from having learned by experience that 
such and such means, so applied, would conduce to it. The 
higher animals, of course, shew more of reason than the lower. 
There are many instances of its existence in domestic animals. 
The dog is regarded as the animal most completely man’s com- 
panion; and I will mention one, out of many specimens of the 
kind of reason to which I refer, as exhibited in a dog. This inci- 
