346 
OiV INSTINCT. 
animal must be nourished with other animals, she collects ten 
or twelve small green worms, which she piles one above another, 
rolls them up in a circular form, and fixes them in such a man¬ 
ner that they cannot move. When the wasp-worm is hatched, 
it is amply stored with the food nature has destined for its sup¬ 
port. The green-worms are devoured in succession, and the 
number deposited is exactly proportioned to the time necessary 
for the growth and transformation of the wasp-worm into a fly. 
The wasp-worm then issues from the hole, and is capable of pro¬ 
curing its own nourishment. 
Now, in both these instances of the bee and wasp, the instincts 
undoubtedly follow the development of the organization, and 
are neither the result of instruction, nor of observation and expe¬ 
rience, but the action of some external agency upon the organi¬ 
zation which is fitted by the omniscient Creator to respond to 
its action. 
Innumerable instances of this kind could be produced to shew 
that the instinctive actions of animals are not derivable from 
experience, and all evincing a foreknowledge of events which 
neither experience nor reflection would have led them to antici¬ 
pate. The care which nature requires for the preservation both 
of the individual and the species has not been entrusted to the 
slow and uncertain calculations of prudence, but to innate facul¬ 
ties, prompting by an unerring impulse to the performance of 
the actions required for those ends. Animals are seen providing 
against the approach of winter, the effects of which they have 
never experienced, and employing various means of defence 
against enemies they have never seen ;—the parent is seen con¬ 
sulting the welfare of the offspring she is destined never to 
behold ; and the young one discovering and pursuing, without 
a guide, that species of food which is best adapted for its 
nature.’^ 
In animals of the same species the instincts are invariably the 
same, though the individuals that compose it have never had an 
opportunity of learning this by any example. A canary bird 
hatched in a cage builds a nest similar to those formed by 
canary birds in their native woods, as nearly, at least, as she 
can with the materials that are given to her; yet she has seen 
none of those of her own species for a model. 
The results of instinct are stable, and exactly adapted to the 
wants of its owner as a species, whether beast, bird, fish, or 
insect; but reason is a yielding quality, governed by circum¬ 
stances, and accommodating itself to the particular inclinations 
or desires of the individual:— 
