ON INSTINCT. 
419 
enjoyment—but qualities of the mind tliat absolutely stagger us 
in the contemplation of them, and which we can alone account 
for in the gradation existing in that wonderful system, which, by 
different links of one vast chain extending from the first to the 
last of all things, till it forms a perfect whole, is placed, as Pro¬ 
fessor Harewood elegantly expresses it, on the doubtful confines of 
the material and spiritual worlds.” 
It might have been instinct that enabled Ulysses' dog to re¬ 
cognize him on his landing in Ithaca, after an absence which 
must have put the power of memory at defiance, and he recog¬ 
nized him with all the acuteness and affection which instinct 
boasts. But what caused him to expire at his feet on the sudden 
dawn of unexpected happiness ? 
The heart of man could go no farther than this. I ask. By 
what name can we call those tender affections, those sincere at¬ 
tachments, w’hich are every day witnessed in those faithful crea¬ 
tures towards human-kind ? Virtue alone is too cold a term, as 
almost every good quality to be found in animated nature is to 
be found here. When we reflect upon the miserable existence 
so often the lot of this kind-hearted animal in this world, and 
consider the probability that, as Byron says, he will be 
" Denied in heaven the soul he held on earth,” 
we cannot but feel regret that he should be without his reward. 
Still this is a point not exactly decided upon by man, at least it 
has been considered as a fit subject for speculation by deep and 
able thinkers. 
Having considered a number of animals, from beings of a sim¬ 
ple to those of a more compound structure, and found that, in 
proportion as the complexity of their organization increases, 
their instinctive principles have diminished, whilst the number 
and dignity of their mental faculties have been more developed, 
we will ascend still higher in our animated chain, and consider 
the action of a class of animals whose mental attributes are more 
strongly marked than any we have hitherto observed. I use the 
term mental without hesitation in reference to the lower animals; 
for I do not believe that they are mere machines, or that the ap¬ 
proximations which they exhibit to human intellect are the result 
of organization alone, any more than our mental faculties. And 
if there are any animals that should excite a sentiment of this 
kind more forcibly than others, it is the monkey tribe. Cuvier 
has placed this species next to man in point of intelligence and 
mental qualifications. No creatures, with the exception of man, 
present such anomalous appearances as those singular beings, in 
