FIDO FIDES. 
271 
we may class the operations of the beaver, the flight of 
wild fowl, the work of the ant, the wasp, and the madre¬ 
pore. Some of these may appear to be partly the result 
of intelligence and it is quite true, that the two powers 
are often combined when one is insufficient for the 
required purpose. Thus the bee may obey a blind 
instinct, while constructing a cell in accordance with 
mathematical law; but it may be guided by intelligence, 
when some obstruction has to be met, by a deviation 
from the ordinary method of its work. A kitten will 
watch at a mouse-hole before it has seen a mouse, and 
a squirrel will deal with the first nut with as much skill 
and apparent knowledge of the kernel it contains as 
with any subsequent nut, in the opening of which it may 
have the supposed advantage of experience. Who taught 
the weasel the situation of the jugular vein, or the 
butterfly the nature of the plant on which its caterpillars 
will feed ? Take this last case as our best example, and 
we can then pass on. A butterfly deposits its first egg 
on the leaf which is best adapted for the support of the 
caterpillar which will ultimately emerge from that egg. 
The butterfly never tasted the leaf itself, never saw the 
egg before, has never seen a caterpillar. It may be 
that the odour of the leaf attracts it: it may be—to give 
rein to conjecture—that the leaf possesses the property 
of causing it to deposit its eggs thereon, when by chance 
it alights there. All that concerns us now is to observe, 
that these so-called instinctive actions are uniform in 
character, and independent of acquired experience. It is 
worthy of note, also, that where there is least intelligence, 
instinct is most powerful, and vice versa, as intellect 
