42 
JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
reproduced as instinctive acts in their descendants. He was forti- 
fied in this view by the high authority of Mr. Darwin. All 
instinct had thus, he believed, a mental voluntary origin, and 
much of it had probably a far closer connection with the conscious 
mental and voluntary activity of the individual animal than was 
commonly supposed. Knowledge of extension and duration was 
acquired slowly by all domesticated animals, and even in insects 
and in birds experience seemed to add to and modify instinct. 
Much of the uniformity of instinct seemed to be due to the uni- 
formity of circumstances. A fruitful source of error in such an 
inquiry as the present was the persistence of certain persons, 
influenced by groundless pre-conceptions, in taking too lofty a 
standard of mind and conscience for their comparison of the 
powers and attainments of animals and men. They forgot what 
man was when found outside the influences to which they gave 
the collective name of civilization. If they would remember what 
savages were — men with whom they could not deny relation- 
ship — there might be less disinclination to admit animals lower in 
organization, but superior in acquirement, into the family circle. 
There were great disadvantages, structural and other, under which 
the majority of the lower animals laboured as contrasted with man. 
Their brain was far smaller, their earthward posture and their 
lack of hands imposed limitations on thought, and hindered pro- 
gress by prohibiting the use of tools ; vocal organs of an unelastic 
character restrained expression, and the brevity of their life pre- 
vented individual acquisition, and increased the strength of the 
rule of instinct. In beings of very low organization they found 
evidences of the existence of considerable mental ability. Ascend- 
ing in the scale of organization, they found animals with nearly 
all the lower powers of the human mind, and many of the higher. 
Further, new knowledge, originating in changed circumstances, 
appeared among many creatures, rapidly to become common pro- 
perty by inheritance. The important point to be observed was, 
that whether the knowledges of animals were instinctive or ac- 
quired, they were soon combined and used in very complex, 
intelligent, personal activities. It was the fashion of the time to 
regard parental affection as mechanical in origin, instinctive in 
manifestation, and wholly unmoral in nature. Therefore to adduce 
their sublime devotion to their offspring as a proof of the moral 
qualities of animals would be simply to introduce another point of 
