'I N S 
-flo-ned For it are thefe : “that, as Foot as the organs of 
•generation, in either fex, become fufficiently ripe for the 
purpofe intended by nature, they lympathife with the 
fen Fes J and 'are affefted with vibrations in the nerves, 
which rife into pleafure above the power of controul, and 
are heightened by youth, health, grateful aliment, imagi¬ 
nation,^ambition, fympathy, and various other involun¬ 
tary fenfations, which, under fuch circumftances, pervade 
the whofe fyftem. And, as thefe organs are endued with 
a creater degree of fe'nfibildty than the other parts, both 
from their make, and the peculiar ftruclure and difpolition 
of their nerves; from the great diftention of the "mufcular 
fyftem and feed-vefiels in males ; as well as from the ex- 
tenfion of the clitoris and finufes of the uterus in females, 
which never fail to take place about the time of puberty; 
the genital organs in both fexes become fo extremely ir¬ 
ritable, that reafeon, being thereby awakened, directs and 
impels to that aft, by which alone the human fpecies can 
poilibly be continued, and the works of an Omnipotent 
Creator carried on and conducted to the ends intended.” 
But in the above ftatement, we are perfuaded every ra¬ 
tional mind will agree, that the word infinEl ought to 
have been fubftituted where that of reafon is ufed; becaufe 
in civilized focieties we are taught by reafon to overcome 
thofe inftinftive palfions, iifftead of having our reafon 
awakened by them ; but we too often find that thefe in¬ 
ftinftive paffions are proof againlt both reafon and refo- 
lution, even in the molt virtuous families, in all countries, 
and in the bell-regulated focieties. What fhall we fay 
then of that part of the human race which yet remains in 
s Hate of nature, uncultivated, and unenlightened by 
any precepts of morality or fcie‘nce ? They are fubjeft 
to the primary command, Increafe and multiply ; and they 
obey it. A couple of young favages go together, for the 
JirJl time, without any view to offspring, without any 
knowledge of the pleafure to be derived from it, and 
without any determinate idea at all ; and, as we fee thefe 
means invariably purfued by all animals, as well rational 
as irrational, without experience, and without inltruftion, 
-y.-e muff refer the mutual defire of the fexes to a much 
higher principle than can poffibly arife from mere me- 
chanifm or affociation ; and that principle can be nothing 
but in find. 
Thefe three actions, then, by which infants fuck, by 
which they chew their food, and by which mankind are pro¬ 
pagated, have undeniably their origin in inltinft. There 
may be many other human actions which derive their ori¬ 
gin from the fame fource ; but in a ffate of civil fociety 
ft is very difficult, if not impoffible, to diftinguifh them 
from the effects of early affociation. We think, however, 
it may be Fafely 'affirmed, that no aftion, whether of man 
or brute, which is deliberately performed with a mew to 
confequences, can with any propriety be faid to proceed from 
in it in cl; for fuch aftions are the effect of reafon in¬ 
fluenced by motives. Deliberation and inftinftareobvioufly 
incompatible. To fay with the author of the Philofophy 
of Natural Hiftory, “ that, when we are ffimulated by a 
particular inltinft, inftead of inftantly obeying the im- 
pulfe, another inltinft arifes in oppofition, creates hefita- 
tion, and often totally extinguilhes the original motive to 
action,” is either to affirm what is apparently not true, 
or it is a grofs perverfion of language. Motives oppofed 
to each other may create hefftation, and a powerful mo¬ 
tive may counterbalance a feeble inltinct ; but of two or 
more inlUndts operating at the lame time, and oppofing 
each other, we have no conception. Inftinft, if we choole 
•to fpeak a language that is intelligible, means a certain 
jmpui’fe under the direftion of Supreme Wifdom; and it 
is very little probable that fuch wifdom (hould give op- 
pofite^impuifes at the fame inllant. In the natural works 
of animals, which are confeffedly under the influence of 
inffind, we perceive no fymptoms of deliberation ; but 
cveiy one, when not interrupted by external violence, 
proceeds without hefitation in the direct road, to an end 
„pf which the animal itfeif knows notliing. The fame 
You XL No. 74.1.. 
INS 145 
would be the cafe with man were he under theguidance of in- 
Itinftonly: but, though the human mind is unqueftionably 
endowed with a few inftinfts neceffary to the prefervation 
of the individual and the propagation of the race, by far 
the greater part of thofe aftions which are commonly laid 
to proceed from inftinft are merely the eftefts of early 
habits. We are likewife of opinion, that the prefent 
faifhionable mode of referring almolt every phenomenon 
in human nature to a particular inllinft as its ultimate 
caufe, is hurtful to fcience, as tending to check all fur¬ 
ther inquiry ; and dangerous to morals, as making people 
implicitly follow, as the diftates of nature and nature’s 
God, the abfurd, fuperftitious, or impious, cuftoms of their 
refpeftive countries. 
IN8TINC'TED, adj. Impreffed as an animated power. 
—What native unextinguilliable beauty muft be impreffed 
and inftbidied through the whole, which the defedatiori of 
fo many parts by a bad printer and a worfe editor could 
not hinder from fhining forth ! Bentley. 
INSTTNC'TIVE, adj. Afting without the application 
of choice or reafon; riling in the mind without apparent 
caufe.—It will be natural that UlyfFes’s mind Ihould for- 
bode ; and it appears that the injliftclivc prefage was a fa¬ 
vourite opinion of Homer’s. Broome. 
By quick injlinElive motion, up I fprung, 
As thitherward endeavouring. Milton. 
INSTINCTIVELY, adj. By inltinft; by the call of 
nature: 
The very rats 
InJlinElively had quitted it. Shakefpeare, 
To INSTITUTE, v.n. [infituo, inflitutum, Lat. injlituer, 
Fr.] To fix ; to eltablilh ; to appoint; to enaft ; to let- 
tie; to preferibe.—God then injlituted a law natural to be 
obferved by creatures ; and therefore, according to the 
manner of laws, the inllitution thereof is defcribed as be¬ 
ing eltablillied by folemn injunction. Hooker. 
Here let us breathe, and haply infitute 
A courfe of learning, and ingenuous ftudies. Shakefpeare. 
To educate; to inllruft; to form by inltruftion.—If 
children were early injlituted, knowledge would infenfibly 
infinuate itfeif. Decay of Piety. 
IN'STITUTE, f. \injlitut, Fr. injlitutum, Lat.] Ella- 
blilhed law ; fettled order: 
This law, though cullom now direfts the courfe, 
As nature’s injlitutc, is yet in force, 
Uncancel’d, though difus’d. Drydcn. 
Precept; maxim ; principle : 
Thou art pale in mighty ftudies grown. 
To make the ftoic inflitutcs thy own. Dryden. 
Institute, in Scotch Law. When by difpofition or 
deed of entail a number of perfons are called to the fuci 
celfion of aneftate one after another, the perfon firll named 
is called the injliiute, the others fubjlitutes. 
Institutes, in literary hiftory, a book containing the 
elements.of the Roman law. The Inftitutes are divided 
into four books; and contain an abridgment of the whole 
body of the civil law, being defigfifed for the ufe of llu- 
dents. 
National Institute, or New Academy of Arts and 
Sciences, at Paris, was founded by a decree of the repub¬ 
lican conftitution, and opened on the 7th of December, 
1795. The abolition of royalty naturally fuggefted to the 
new rulers of France, that it would likewife be proper to' 
abolifh every thing which had the remoteft connexion 
"with it. Condorcet therefore propofed that the feven old 
academies, fuch as thofe of fciences, of inferiptions, See. 
which had the terra royal prefixed to the whole of them, 
Ihould give way to the eftabiilhment of one new academy 
of arts and fciences, under the title of the NationalInjlitute. 
It is not true, .as ftated in our article France, vol. vii. 
903, that the National Inftitute, fince the revival of roy- 
P P alty 
