INSTINCTS. 
175 
young; yet, in her way, she is as careful m making provi 
sion for them, as any other bird. She does not leave her 
egg in every hole. 
The salmon suffers no surmountable obstacle to oppose 
her progress up the stream of fresh rivers. And what does 
she do there? She sheds a spawn, which she immediately 
quits, in order to return to the sea; and this issue of her 
body she never afterwards recognises in any shape what¬ 
ever. Where shall we find a motive for her efforts and 
her perseverance? Shall we seek it in argumentation, or 
in instinct? The violet crab of Jamaica performs a fa¬ 
tiguing march of some months’ continuance, from the 
mountains to the sea-side. When she reaches the coast, 
she casts her spawn into the open sea; and sets out upon 
her return home. 
Moths and butterflies, as hath already been observed, 
seek out for their eggs those precise situations and sub¬ 
stances, in which the offspring caterpillar will find its ap¬ 
propriate food. That dear caterpillar the parent butterfly 
must never see. There are no experiments to prove that 
she would retain any knowledge of it, if she did. How 
shall we account for her conduct ? I do not mean for her 
art and judgment in selecting and securing a maintenance 
for her young, but for the impulse upon which she acts 
What should induce her to exert any art, or judgment, or 
choice, about the matter? The undisclosed grub, the ani¬ 
mal which she is destined not to know, can hardly be the 
object of a particular affection, if we deny the influence 
of instinct. There is nothing, therefore, left to her, but 
that of which her nature seems incapable, an abstract anx¬ 
iety for the general preservation of the species; a kind of 
patriotism; a solicitude lest the butterfly race should cease 
from the creation. 
Lastly, the principle of association will not explain the 
discontinuance of the affection when the young animal 
is grown up. Association, operating in its usual way, 
would rather produce a contrary effect. The object would 
become more necessary by habits of society: whereas 
birds and beasts, after a certain time, banish their off¬ 
spring; disown their acquaintance; seem to have even no 
knowledge of the objects which so lately engrossed the 
attention of their minds, and occupied the industry and 
labor of their bodies, j This change, in different animals, 
takes place at different distances of time from the birth; 
but the time always corresponds with the ability of the 
young animal to maintain itself; never anticipates it. In 
