ONE would wonder to hear Sceptical Men difputing for the Reason of Animals, and telling us it is only our Pride and Prejudices that will not allow them the use of that Faculty.

REASON fhews it felf in all Occurrences of Life; whereas the Brute makes no Discovery of fuch a Talent, but in what immediately regards his own Prefervation, or the Continuance of his Species. Animals in their Generation are wifer than the Sons of Men; but their Wifdom is confined to a few Particulars, and lies in a very narrow Compafs. Take a Brute out of his Instinct, and you find him wholly deprived of Understanding. To ufe an Inftance that comes often under Obfervation.

WITH what Caution does the Hen provide her felf a Neft in Places unfrequented, and free from Noife and Difturbance? When she has laid her Eggs in fuch a manner that he can cover them, what Care does the take in turning them frequently, that all Parts may partake of the vital Warmth ? When The leaves them to provide for her neceffary Suftenance, how punctually does fhe return before they have time to cool, and become incapable of producing an

Animal? In the Summer you fee her giving her felf greater Freedoms, and quitting her Care for above two Hours together; but in Winter, when the Rigour of the Seafon would chill the Principles of Life, and deftroy the Young one, fhe grows more affiduous in her Attendance, and stays away but Half the Time. When the Birth approaches, with how much Nicety and Attention does the help the Chick to break its Prifon? Not to take Notice of her covering it from the Injuries of the Weather, providing it proper Nourishment, and teaching it to help it felf; nor to mention her forfaking the Neft, if after the ufual time of Reckoning the young one does not make its Appearance. A Chymical Operation could not be fol1 lowed with greater Art or Diligence, than is feen in the hatching of a Chick; tho' there are many other Birds that fhew an infinitely greater Sagacity in all the forementioned Particulars.

BUT at the fame time the Hen that has all this feeming Ingenuity, (which is indeed abfolutely neceffary for the Propagation of the Species) confidered in other Refpects, is without the leaft Glimmerings of Thought or com

mon

mon Senfe.

She miftakes a Piece of Chalk for an Egg, and fits upon it in the fame manner: She is infenfible of any Increase or Diminution in the Number of thofe fhe lays: She does not diftinguish between her own and those of another Species; and when the Birth appears of never fo different a Bird, will cherish it for her own. In all these Circumftances which do not carry an immediate Regard to the Subsistance of her felf or her Species, fhe is a very Ideot.

THERE is not in my Opinion any thing more myfterious in Nature than this Inftinct of Animals, which thus rifes above Reafon, and falls infinitely fhort of it. It cannot be accounted for. by any Properties in Matter, and at the fame time works after fo odd a Manner, that one cannot think it the Faculty of an intellectual Being. For my own Part, I look upon it as upon the principle of Gravitation in Bodies, which is not to be explained by any known Qualities inherent in the Bodies themselves, nor from any Laws of Mechanism, but according to the best Notions of the greatest Philofophers,is an immediate Impreffion from the first Mover,

and

and the Divine Energy acting in the Creatures.

L

N° 121. Thursday, July 19.

A

-Jovis omnia plena.

Virg.

S I was walking this Morning in the great Yard that belongs to my Friend's Country-Houfe, I was wonderfully pleafed to fee the different Workings of Instinct in a Hen followed by a Brood of Ducks. The Young, upon the fight of a Pond, immediately ran into it; while the Stepmother, with all imaginable Anxiety, hovered about the Borders of it, to call them out of an Element that appeared to her fo dangerous and deftructive. As the different Principle which acted in thefe different Animals cannot be termed Reason, so when we call it Instinct, we mean fomething we have no Know ledge of. To me, as I hinted in my laft Paper, it seems the immediate Direction of Providence, and fuch an Ope

ration of the Supreme Being, as that which determines all the Proportions of Matter to their proper Centres. A Modern Philofopher, quoted by Monfieur Bayle in his learned Differtation on the Souls of Brutes, delivers the fame Opinion, tho' in a bolder Form of Words, where he says, Deus eft Anima Brutorum, God himself is the Soul of Brutes. Who can tell what to call that seeming Sagacity in Animals, which directs them to fuch Food as is proper for them, and makes them naturally avoid whatever is noxious or unwholesome ? Tully has obferved that a Lamb no fooner falls from its Mother, but immediate ly and of its own accord applies it self to the Teat: Dampier, in his Travels, tells us, that when Seamen are thrown upon any of the unknown Coafts of America, they never venture upon the Fruit of any Tree, how tempting foever it may appear, unlefs they obferve that it is marked with the Pecking of Birds; but fall on without any Fear or Apprehenfion where the Birds have been before them.

Y BUT notwithstanding Animals have nothing like the ufe of Reafon, we find in them all the lower Parts of our Na

ture,