But small birds sit most assiduously, otherwise their eggs could not be hatched. Here we find an amazing adaptation of instinct to the circumstances of the animal, for which we see no rational way of accounting, without ultimately resorting to a wise first cause. The bird does not understand the process which it is carrying on: it does not know the end to be accomplished; yet it carries on the process with the most minute precision, in opposition to all its habits during the other seasons of the year, and in the absence of disastrous accidents, arising from foreign causes, it accomplishes the end with infallible certainty.

Fish, with a few exceptions, are oviparous; and generally, after depositing their eggs, pay no farther attention to their progeny. There are, however, some striking exceptions. The female cayman repairs to the banks of a river; forms a large hole in the sand, and there deposits her eggs. She covers them carefully, and rolls herself on the place to smooth it, that it may not be discovered. She leaves her eggs to be hatched in the sand; but her instinctive propensity prompts her to return, at the exact time, to uncover them and break the shells, when the young caymans come forth.

3. The instinctive propensities of animals do not terminate with the appearance of their progeny in the world, but continue as long as the aid of the parent is needful for rearing the offspring. Most animals have a strong affection for their young, which manifests itself in providing food for them. And in order to the supply of this food, there is, in many instances, a wonderful physical constitution in the parent, as well as surprising instincts in the progeny. Thus in the human race, such is the constitution of the mother, that she secretes a nutritious fluid for the support of her child, and the secretion of this fluid accompanies the need for it. It does not depend on volition. It does not exist at any other time. And in the child what a wonderful instinct displays itself in the complicated muscular action by which this fluid is obtained. Sucking is an operation in which the infant soon becomes expert; but few grown persons can perform it. The instinctive skill is lost, when the need for it ceases.

In many quadrupeds, as well as in the human race, the mother secretes a nutritious fluid for the support of her offspring, and she can yield nourishment to her young while she herself is feeding. There is a remarkable correspondence between the instinct of the young animal, and the provision made for its support. Almost as soon as it comes into the world, it seeks for the teat from which it is to draw nourish

ment. Now, how happens it that this fluid is secreted just at the time when it is needed? Who established that constitution of the animal by which the secretion takes place? How shall we account for the young animal, almost at the moment of its birth, groping for the organ from which it is to receive food, and employing the means necessary for obtaining that food?

Human infancy is long, and we find a corresponding affection and solicitude on the part of the parents. If a child be delicate and sickly, the parents feel for it a more tender affection, and exercise towards it a more assiduous attention than towards the infant of a more robust constitution. The watchful care accommodates itself to the exigency of the case, and generates a degree of affection, without which the anxiety and toil would be altogether insupportable. We may trace this process in the human mind for a little way, but it ultimately terminates in the instinctive principles of our nature. Young persons are capable of receiving instruction as well as food from their parents, and accordingly in the human race parental affection is permanent. After it has ceased to display itself in nourishing and defending, it appears in instructing and directing.

Birds do not secrete a fluid for the nourishment of their young; but they are diligent in providing food for them, which is earnestly solicited and greedily received. We may here remark, that it is the albumen chiefly which is expended in the formation of the chick; the yolk of the egg, without undergoing any considerable change, being wrapt up in its intestines to nourish it, till it receives or is capable of gathering other food. In most instances young birds would inevitably perish, without the nursing care of the parents. In some cases, however, the young can provide for themselves almost as soon as they escape from the shell, and in these instances the fostering instinct of the parent soon disappears. Some insects display an astonishing instinct in providing food for their young before they are hatched.* Others, which make no such provision, lay their eggs in places where the young, when they appear, can easily find subsistence. These instincts, must proceed either from the animals themselves, or from some Being possessed of reason and intelligence; but they cannot originate with the inferior animal itself, for it is obviously destitute of reason, and incapable of that foresight

* See Smellie's Philosophy of Natural History, v. i. p. 148.

and wisdom which its cares and precautions indicate. In order to account for these instincts, we must ascend to a wise and benevolent Intelligence.

4. All animals defend their young; and, in obeying this instinctive impulse, the mother seems, in many instances, to lose her natural habits, and to assume a new character. The domestic hen, a stupid and timorous bird, becomes fierce and violent in defending her chickens. Even the harmless and inoffensive ewe assumes a menacing air, stamps with her foot, and seems to bid defiance to those who approach her lamb. But as the lamb acquires strength, and is able to run with its mother, her assumed character forsakes her, and she has recourse to flight. Hinds anxiously conceal their fawns, and, in order to draw the dogs away from them, present themselves to be chased. It is at once amusing and affecting to observe the artifices employed by the lapwing to decoy the intruder to a distance from her young.

The Kamtschadales never venture to fire upon a young bear when the mother is near; for if the cub falls, she becomes enraged to a degree little short of madness, and if she gets sight of the enemy, will only quit her revenge with her life. The same instinct is remarkably apparent in some inhabitants of the waters. The morse and the polar white bear have a great affection for their cubs, and are courageous and active in defending them.* The sea otter pines to death at

*Speaking of the morse, Captain King says, "On the ap proach of the boats towards the ice, they took their young ones under their fins, and attempted to escape with them into the sea. Some whose cubs were killed, and left floating on the surface of the water, rose again and carried them down, sometimes just as our men were on the point of taking them into the boat, and could be traced bearing them to a considerable distance through the water, which was stained with their blood. They were afterwards observed bringing them at intervals above the surface, as if for air, and again plunging under it with a horrid bellowing. The female, in particular, whose young one had been killed and taken into the boat, became so furious, that she struck her two tusks through the bottom of the cutter."

The affection between the polar bear and her cub is so great, that they will die rather than desert each other. "We saw two white bears in the water, to which we immediately gave chase in the jolly boat, and killed them both. The larger, which probably was the dam of the younger, being shot first, the other would not quit, but remained swimming about, till after being

the loss of its young, and breathes its last on the spot where they have been taken from it. Throughout every province of animated nature we meet with wonderful instincts, all directed to the preservation of the individual, and to the continuation of the species. Every instinct appears exactly in its proper place. Were the instincts to be altered, or those belonging to one species transferred to another, the harmony of the system would be deranged, and disorder ensue. For instance, were the sheep, its time of gestation continuing the same as at present, to come in season at the same time with the mare, it would bring forth at a period when the inclemency of the weather would destroy both the mother and her young.

If instincts result, as some have imagined, from conformation of parts, who organized the animal? If they flow from mechanical impulse, who constructed the machine? Where is the moving power? To talk of attraction, gravitation, nature, appetency, &c. in order to account for the existence or characteristic propensities of living creatures, is merely darkening counsel by a multitude of words. It is a vain attempt to substitute sound for sense; for where is there any rational way of accounting for the various instincts of animals, but by referring them to a powerful, wise, and good Intelligence? In the instincts of the creature we see the perfections of the Creator; and may apply to instincts in general what Dr. Reid says of bees in the construction of their cells. "They work most geometrically, without any knowledge of geometry; somewhat like a child, who by turning the hand of an organ makes good music, without any knowledge of music. The art is not in the child, but in him who makes the organ. In like manner, when a bee makes its combs so geometrically, the geometry is not in the bee, but in that great Geometrician who made the bee, and made all things in number, weight, and measure." If we do not see other animals displaying the geometry of the bee, we observe them, in a similar manner, employing suitable and effectual means for the accomplishment of their ends.

Thus, in our cursory glance at animated nature, we have seen great uniformity accompanied by surprising variety. The same general outline, with various modifications, prevails widely in the formation of living creatures. If we ex

fired upon several times it was shot dead."-See Cook's Third Voyage, v. iii. p. 248, &c.

amine any one animal, we find its parts admirably adapted to each other. They form a harmonious whole. In every species we see an astonishing relation of the organs of one sex to those of another. By means of bodily conformation and instinctive propensity, an adequate provision is made for the preservation of the individual, and the continuation of the species. Everything goes on in a regular and uniform course. We never see any new species of animals appearing, nor any old kinds ceasing to exist. We meet with no metamorphoses of animals into a species different from that of their parents. By adventitious circumstances, the size, strength, and, in some measure, the instincts of animals, may be altered; but still the character of the species remains essentially the same.

There is an amazing gradation of animated beings, but even the classes that seem most nearly allied are distinct. Each kind continues what it originally was. We never see one species either suddenly, or gradually in a long succession of ages, transformed into another. No species either rises or falls in the scale. Men, and all other animals, continue such as they have been from the earliest records of time. The different species approach each other; but still they are separated by an impassable barrier. Animated nature thus exhibits undeniable marks of design, and consequently leads us, with irresistible force, to a powerful, wise, and good Being, who created, and continues to superintend the system.

We now proceed to inanimated nature; and I apprehend we will find it wisely constituted, and bearing a gracious relation to living creatures. As nothing within the sphere of our knowledge gives us any reason whatever to believe that the one of these formed the other, we must attribute both to the power, wisdom, and goodness of a Supreme Intelligence.

CHAPTER VI.

THE OCEAN.

THE terraqueous globe is an oblate spheroid, having its equatorial diameter somewhat longer than the polar. The globular figure is the fittest for the steady motion of the earth in its orbit, and for its diurnal rotation on its axis: it is also the most capacious. The earth is so firmly compacted, that