492 The Harmony of Creation. 
draw attention to the immutability of such laws. In the 
organic world the laws operate with equal precision and 
certainty, but are, at the same time, dependent upon con- 
ditions and circumstances. All organic matter, whether 
endowed with intelligence, instinct, or simple vitality, is 
finite, and therefore does not require such immutability of 
law as is necessary for inorganic bodies. The heart acts so 
long as vital blood is supplied, and the stomach continues 
to digest if the nervous system remains intact, and food 
is introduced. Vegetation flourishes under the influence of 
light, warmth, and moisture. 
We have mentioned instinct and intelligence as subject 
to distinct laws. Instinct must be regarded as a simple 
power, emanating directly from the Creator. A purely in- 
stinctive act is performed with as much skill and facility at 
the first as at the last. Neither experience nor repetition 
improve this faculty. The new born ‘animal seizes the 
mother’s breast, and draws the milk and swallows it as 
perfectly as when a year old. The young bee, just emerged 
from the cell, sets about the highly geometrical process of 
constructing its complicated hexagonal cells, and does its 
work as well and as perfectly as the oldest inhabitant. In- 
stinctive acts are thus done without any perception or con- 
sciousness on the part of the agent. Intelligent acts, on 
the contrary, are performed not only with a consciousness 
of their consequences, but because of that consciousness. 
They are performed with a view to produce effects which 
are known by previous experience to have resulted from 
them. Cultivation improves intelligence to a limited de- 
gree in animals below man. This susceptibility of improve- 
ment distinctly separates intelligence from instinct. We 
are all aware that an old rat, fox, or dog, is more know- 
ing than the young of the same species. 
In studying this subject, it must not be overlooked that 
acts prompted by instinct are perfect in their performance 
—perfect so far as the necessities of animals require, 
whereas acts the result of intelligence are more or less im- 
perfect. We will narrate a very high act of intelligence in 
the dog, which was given as a fact in the Lezsuve Hour 
several years ago. A Scotch shepherd accidentally caught 
his arm in a rock, a stone having rolled over by some 
accident ; he was thus pinned, as Milo was in attempting 
to tear asunder an old oak. A colly, or Scotch shepherd’s 
dog accompanied, as usual, this Scotchman. He endea- 
voured to make the dog understand that he was to go 
