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radicle to u a mysterious instinct/’ or to “ a kind of fore-know!edge.” The 
time may possibly arrive, when these movements of the plume and radicle 
in its germinating state, will be deemed instances of instinct* as much 
as the first movements of certain species of birds when they have escaped 
from their egg; as much so as the instinct which impels the duckling to 
seek the water, or the chick of the American Pheasant (Tetrao Cu pijdo) 
to seek the wood, even when neither of them have been hatched under 
females of their own kind. 
The instinct of certain animals is truly wonderful; and to solve this 
problem recourse has been had by Des Cartes, and by other philosophers, 
to conformation of body, and mechanical impulse. Their reasonings, how¬ 
ever, though often ingenious, involve the subject in tenfold obscurity. We 
can hardly suppose that the animals actually foresee what is to happen, 
because, at first, they have not had even the aid of experience; and, parti¬ 
cularly in some of the insect tribes, the parents are dead before their young 
are produced. Pure instincts, of this kind, therefore, must be referred to 
another source. In a chain of reasoning concerning the operations of Na¬ 
ture, such is the constitution of our minds, that we are under the necessity 
of resorting to an Ultimate Cause: the essence of that cause, it is the highest 
presumption in man to pretend to divine ; but though we must for ever 
remain ignorant of the cause, we are enabled to trace, and even to under¬ 
stand, partially, some of the effects; and from these effects we perceive the 
most consummate wisdom, the most elegant and perfect contrivances to 
accomplish the multifarious and wonderful intentions of Nature. In con¬ 
templating the operations of animals from man down to the seemingly most 
contemptible insect, or even vegetables, we are necessarily compelled to refer 
them to pure instincts or original qualities of seeming thought, diversified by 
Nature according as the necessities, preservation, and continuation of the 
different species may require. 
* Vide Sect, in Vol. II. on the “ Perceptivity of Plants.” 
