But at the same time the Hen, that has all this seeming
Ingenuity, (which is indeed absolutely necessary for
the Propagation of the Species) considered in other
respects, is without the least Glimmerings of Thought
or common Sense. She mistakes a Piece of Chalk
for an Egg, and sits upon it in the same manner:
She is insensible of any Increase or Diminution in
the Number of those she lays: She does not distinguish
between her own and those of another Species; and when
the Birth appears of never so different a Bird, will
cherish it for her own. In all these Circumstances
which do not carry an immediate Regard to the Subsistence
of her self or her Species, she is a very Ideot.
There is not, in my Opinion, any thing more mysterious
in Nature than this Instinct in Animals, which thus
rises above Reason, and falls infinitely short of
it. It cannot be accounted for by any Properties
in Matter, and at the same time works after so 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 Philosophers, is an immediate Impression
from the first Mover, and the Divine Energy acting
in the Creatures.
L.
[Footnote 1: depose]
* * * *
*
No. 121. Thursday, July 19, 1711.
Addison.
‘...
Jovis omnia plena.’
Virg.
As I was walking this Morning in the great Yard that
belongs to my Friend’s Country House, I was
wonderfully pleased to see the different Workings
of Instinct in a Hen followed by a Brood of Ducks.
The Young, upon the sight 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 so dangerous
and destructive. As the different Principle which
acted in these different Animals cannot be termed
Reason, so when we call it Instinct, we mean
something we have no Knowledge of. To me, as I
hinted in my last Paper, it seems the immediate Direction
of Providence, and such an Operation of the Supreme
Being, as that which determines all the Portions of
Matter to their proper Centres. A modern Philosopher,
quoted by Monsieur Bayle [1] in his learned
Dissertation on the Souls of Brutes, delivers the
same Opinion, tho’ in a bolder Form of Words,
where he says, Deus est Anima Brutorum, God
himself is the Soul of Brutes. Who can tell what
to call that seeming Sagacity in Animals, which directs
them to such Food as is proper for them, and makes
them naturally avoid whatever is noxious or unwholesome?
Tully has observed that a Lamb no sooner falls
from its Mother, but immediately and of his own accord
applies itself to the Teat. Dampier, in his
Travels, [2] tells us, that when Seamen are thrown
upon any of the unknown Coasts of America, they
never venture upon the Fruit of any Tree, how tempting
soever it may appear, unless they observe that it
is marked with the Pecking of Birds; but fall on without
any Fear or Apprehension where the Birds have been
before them.
