which I have met with in authors, and comparing them with what falls under my own obfervation : The argument for providence drawn from the natural hiftory of animals being in my opinion demonftrative.

The make of every kind of animal is different from that of every other kind; and yet there is not the leaft turn in the muscles or twist in the fibres of any one, which does not render them more proper for that particular animal's way of life than any other caft or texture of them would have been.

The most violent appetites in all creatures are Luft and Hunger: The first is a perpetual call upon them to propagate their kind; the latter to preferve themselves.

It is aftonishing to confider the different degrees of care that defcend from the parent to the young, fo far as is abfolutely neceffary for the leaving a posterity. Some creatures caft their eggs as chance directs them, and think of them no farther, as infects and several kinds of fish; others, of a nicer frame, find out proper beds to depofite them in, and there leave them; as the ferpent, the crocodile, and oftrich: Others hatch their eggs, and tend the birth, till it is able to fhift for itself.

What can we call the principle which directs every different kind of bird to obferve a particular plan in the structure of its neft, and direct all the fame fpecies to work after the fame model? It cannot be Imitation; for, though you hatch a crow under a hen, and never let it fee any of the works of its own kind, the neft it makes fhall be the fame, to the laying of a stick, with all the other nefts of the fame fpecies. It cannot be reafon; for, were animals indued with it to as great a degree as man, their buildings would be as different as ours, according to the different conveniencies that they would propofe to themfelves.

Is it not remarkable, that the fame temper of wea

ther,

ther, which raises this genial warmth in animals, fhould cover the trees with leaves, and the fields with grafs, for their fecurity and concealment, and produce fuch infinite fwarms of infects for the fupport and fuftenance of their refpective broods?

Is it not wonderful, that the love of the parent fhould be fo violent while it lafts, and that it fhould laft no longer than is neceffary for the preservation of the young?

The violence of this natural love is exemplified by a very barbarous experiment; which I fhall quote at length, as I find it in an excellent author, and hope my readers will pardon the mentioning fuch an inftance of cruelty, because there is nothing can fo effectually fhow the strength of that principle in animals of which I am here fpeaking. "A perfon who was well fkilled in diffections open. ❝ed a bitch, and as the lay in the moft exquifite "tortures, offered her one of her young puppies, "which the immediately fell a licking; and for "the time feemed infenfible of her own pain: On "the removal, the kept her eye fixt on it, and be" gan a wailing fort of cry, which feemed rather "to proceed from the lofs of her young one, than "the fenfe of her own torments."

But, notwithstanding this natural love in brutes is much more violent and intenfe than in rational creatures, providence has taken care that it fhould be no longer troublesome to the parent than it is useful to the young; for fo foon as the wants of the latter cease, the mother withdraws her fondnefs, and leaves them to provide for themselves: And, what is a very remarkable circumstance in this part of inftinct, we find that the love of the parent may be lengthened out beyond its ufual time, if the preservation of the fpecies requires it; as we may fee in birds that drive away their young as foon as they are able to get their livelihood, but continue to feed them if they are tied to the neft, or confined

within a cage, or by any other means appear to be out of a condition of supplying their own neceffities.

This natural love is not observed in animals to afcend from the young to the parent, which is not at all neceffary for the continuance of the fpecies; nor indeed in reasonable creatures does it rise in any proportion, as it fpreads itfelf downwards: For, in all family affection, we find protection granted and favours bestowed, are greater motives to love and tenderness, than fafety, benefits, or life received.

One would wonder to hear fceptical men difputing for the reafon of animals, and telling us it is only our pride and prejudices that will not allow them the ufe of that faculty.

Reason fhews itself 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 fpecies. Animals in their generation are wifer than the fons of men; but their wisdom is confined to a few particulars, and lies in a very narrow compafs. Take a brute out of his inftinct, and you find him wholly deprived of understanding. To ufe an inftance that comes often under obfervation.

With what caution does the hen provide herself a neft in places unfrequented, and free from noise and disturbance! When the has laid her eggs in fuch a manner that she 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 fuftenance, how punctually does the return before they have time to cool, and become incapable of producing an animal? In the fummer you fee her giving herfelf greater freedoms, and quitting her care for above two hours together; but in winter, when the rigour of the feafon would chill the principles of life, and deflroy the young one, fhe grows more

affiduous

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 itself; nor to mention her forfaking the nett, if after the ufual time of reckoning the young one does not make its appearance. A chymical operation could not be followed with greater art or diligence, than is feen in the hatching of a chick; though there are many other birds that fhew an infinitely greater fagacity 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 fpecies) confidered in other refpects, is without the leaft glimmerings of thought or common sense. She mistakes 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 fpecies; and when the birth appears of never fo different a bird, will cherith it for her own. In all these circumftances, which do not carry an immediate regard to the fubfiftence of herself or her fpecies, fhe is a very idiot.

There is not, in my opinion, any thing more myfterious in nature than this inftinct in 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 gravi tation in bodies, which is not to be explained by: any known qualities inherent in the bodies them felves, nor from any laws of mechanifin; but ac cording to the best notions of the greatest philofo

phers,

phers, is an immediate impreffion from the first mover, and the divine energy acting in the crea

tures.

L

No. 121.

A

THURSDAY, JULY 19.

Jovis omnia plena.

All is full of Jove.

VIRG. Ecl. iii. ver. 60.

S I was walking this morning in the great yard that belongs to my friend's country-house, I was wonderfully pleased to fee the different workings of inftinct in a hen followed by a brood of ducks. The young, upon the fight of a pond, immediately ran into it, while the ftep-mother, 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 reafon, fo when we call it instinct, we mean fomething we have no knowledge of. To me, as I hinted in my laft paper, it feems the immediate direction of providence, and fuch an operation of the Supreme Being, as that which determines all the portions of matter to their proper centres. modern philofopher, quoted by Monfieur Bayle in his learned differtation on the fouls of brutes, delivers the fame opinion, though in a bolder form of words, where he fays, Deus eft anima brutorum, God himself is the foul of brutes. Who can tell what to call that feeming fagacity in animals, which directs them to fuch food as is proper for them, and makes them naturally avoid whatever is noxious and unwhole fome? Tully has obferved, that a lamb no fooner falls from its mother, but inmediately and of his own accord applies itself to the

A

teat,