ON BREEDING. 
392 
which he plunders.” Animals, therefore, gain nothing by expe¬ 
rience ; they are as accomplished in their first attempt as in the 
last. 
u Reason progressive, instinct is complete; 
Swift instinct leaps, slow reason feebly climbs : 
Brutes soon their zenith reach; their little all 
Flows in at once, in ages they no more 
Could know, or do, or covet, or enjoy/* 
It has been supposed, seeing that the minds of domestic ani¬ 
mals have been capable of acting variously upon different occa¬ 
sions, that their instincts were capable of improvement. The 
minds of all animals are capable of receiving instruction ; some 
have received from Nature greater capacities than others belong¬ 
ing to the same species : 
“ Some to higher hopes 
Were destined; some within a finer mould 
She wrought, and tempered wfth a purer flame/* 
In “breaking horses,” we oftentimes find that some appear to 
possess a singular quickness of apprehension, that enables them 
to acquire, by a sort of intuition, that which others can only be 
made to comprehend by long and laborious application. Every 
one is now acquainted with the wonderful performances of the 
horses at Astley’s Theatre, but this is only the effect of edu¬ 
cation. 
Man, we know, often copies the works of instinct, and so far 
alters them, as to render them subservient to other purposes than 
those for which they were originally performed. To Nature he 
is indebted for its sublimest lessons: bom with few instincts, 
he was laid under the necessity of forming his understanding on 
her productions; and thus became instructed in the arts and 
sciences from plans suggested by the industry of animals:— 
u Learn from the birds what food the thickets yield, 
Learn from the beasts the physic of the field; 
The arts of building from the bee receive; 
Learn of the mole to plough, the worm to weave : 
Learn of the little nautilus to saib 
Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale/’ 
But the arts thus adopted by man are no more to be considered 
the works of instinct, than the education which the domesticated 
animal has received from mankind can, with propriety, be termed 
instinctive knowledge. 
[To be continued.] 
