ON INSTINCT. 
m 
him with love or terror. Thus, too, is fulfilled the word which 
conferred on him the original sovereignty of the world (Gen. ix, 2). 
He is the only being who has the disposal of fire ; hence he has 
been called the cooking animal; and he alone practises agricul¬ 
ture— the ox never thinks of resowing the grain which he 
treads out on the barn floor, nor the monkey the maize of the 
field which he plunders.” 
Man came into the world already tenanted with inhabitants of 
various characters and qualifications. Beasts are, therefore, his 
elder brethren. He is not an insulated being; he relies on the 
friendships of others. The happiness of every individual is at¬ 
tached to the happiness of mankind—he is under obligations to 
exert himself for the general good, because his own depends upon 
it. But interest is not the only motive which renders virtue a 
duty to him : he is indebted to Nature for its sublimest lessons. 
Born with few instincts, he was laid under the necessity of 
forming his intellect on her productions. He could imagine 
nothing but after the model of every kind with which she has 
presented him. He was instructed in devising and perfecting 
the mechanic arts from plans suggested by the instincts of 
animals, and in the liberal arts and sciences after the model 
of Nature’s own immediate harmonies and plans. 
See him from nature, rising slow to art. 
To copy instinct then was reason’s part; 
Thus to man the voice of nature spake : 
Go,—from the creatures thy instruction take ; 
Learn from the birds what food the thickets yield; 
Learn from the beasts, the physic of the field; 
Thy arts of building from the bee receive; 
Learn of the mole to plough, the worm to weave ; 
Learn of the little nautilus to sail. 
Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale.” 
One of the constituent features of the human organization— 
one of the most decided of our corporeal inclinations—and, at 
the same time, one of the most imperious necessities of our 
spiritual existence is —t/ie tendency to imitate. Commencing in 
our cradle, it follows us at all times, and every where. It is by 
this tendency that man attains his development, both moral and 
physical, and that the individual is enabled to profit by the 
ideas and discoveries of all. To this source may be traced the 
origin of society, of language, and of civilization. 
A very remarkable instinct is exhibited by an animal called 
the rat-hare, which, on account of its peculiar propensities, 
ought to be called the hay-inaker, since man may, or might, 
have learned that pai t of the business of the agriculturist which 
consists in providing a store of winter provisions for his cattle 
