1 1 Cudgel in ftore for me, if I get within the reach of it; I will therefore prefer the Dog's Portion of Hunger and Eafe, before Lafbes and Stripes, and broken Bones. Ay! and he is much in the right, he reasons well, and discovers more Sense and better Logic than many a stupid Puppy with two Legs, who lives at random, who purfues every appearance of Pleasure, gratifies every Appetite, fubmits to every demand of Luft or Fancy, without Thought or Reflection, and rushes with his Eyes open into certain Diseases, Beggary and Damnation. Now then if the Senfes and Perceptions of Brutes be fo quick and lively, if from those Perceptions they never fail to draw juft and rational Conclufions, and to make a practical Ufe of them for the preventing Pain, or procuring Pleasure, if by the different Motions and Geftures of their Bodies, or Sound of their Voice, they express their different Sentiments of Joy and Sadness, of Pain or Pleasure, of Fear and Defire, of Love or Hatred; I cannot help concluding from thence, that they have in them fome Principle of Knowledge and Sentiment, be it what it will. Now, were all the Philofophers in the world to affert and maintain the Cartefian Opinion of their being Machines, there is fome strong inward Conviction in every fenfible unprejudiced Mind that gives them the lye, tho' we were not able to confute their Affertion, nor defend our own; and furely nothing but the Vanity of a Frenchman could ever expect that fo abfurd a Scheme could pafs upon a learned World for found Reafon and true Philofophy. For my own part, I could as foon expect to fee Gallantries between a couple of amorous Clocks or Watches, or a Battle betwixt two quarrelfome Windmills. The Notion of Instinct, though not fo palpably abfurd,is equally obfcure, unneceffary, and useless for all the great ends and purposes which it is intended to ferve. They who use it, do not pretend to define it, to fhew us its real Nature, or wherein it confifts, they feem only to speak of it as a blind Impetus, and unknown Impulfe; a kind of Mechanical Neceffity, by which we are in a manner compelled to perform such and fuch Actions, without being able to know or explain the Reasons for fo doing. By this, they pretend to account for many wonderful Operations and Effects in the almoft infinite Variety of Species through the Brute-Creation, such as, for inftance, all forts of Birds building their Nefts in exact uniformity of Model and with the fame Materials, all the various Methods of Cure that both Birds and Beafts have recourse to when they are any ways indifpofed or wounded; this it is, they fay, that teaches the Sparrows to purge themselves with Spiders and other Infects; this teaches Birds to fwallow Gravel to facilitate their Digeftion; this teaches the Dog with a furfeited Stomach to run to a particular kind of Grafs to procure a Vomit; to this we owe all the excellent and wonderful Operations to be found among Beafts and Birds, Reptiles and Infects; many of which feem to exceed the C highest : highest Improvements of human Reafon and Invention. But why must all this be owing to Inftinct? Since we cannot refuse them a knowing Faculty, why should we give them a needlefs Inftinct? Thefe wonderful Operations may be, for ought we know, the fimple Effects of their Understanding and fince it is folely in confe quence of a knowing Faculty, that Man performs the fame Operations, why should not the fame Principle alfo rule in the Brutes? And where would be the Herefy of believing or affirming, that those Actions which Brutes are fuppofed to per→ form by meer Inftinct, are performed in confequence of their Understandings, with Understanding and Reafon? Is fuch a thing impoffible? Does either Reafon or Revelation forbid it? Are they not equally poffible to their Omnipotent Creator? And can any reafonable Doubt be made, whe ther they were not endued with every Perfection that their Rank in the Scale of Beings required? And would it not be a great Imperfection to want the means of knowing and procuring whatever was requifite in the common Order of Nature, for the Prefervation of the Individuals and the Propagation of the Species? And fince it cannot be denied that every Species of Beings have that power, I fee nothing abfurd or unphilofophical in fuppofing, that the All-wife and Omnipotent Author of Nature has given each of them fuch Faculties as are proportionable to their Wants and Capacities, and the part they fill in the univerfal Syftem. Is there either Abfurdity or Herefy in fuppofing, that the fame fame infinite Power that could form the Body C 2 the Sun, which unnatural difregard for her Offfpring is fo remarkable, that when they sce a Mother who has little Tenderness for her Children, they compare her to an Ostrich; to which the Prophet Jeremiah alludes in his Book of Lamentations, ch. iv. 3. The Daughter of my People is become cruel, like the Oftriches in the Wilderness. In fhort, the Ostrich is allowed, on all hands, to be a very stupid foolish Bird, deftitute of that Prudence and Caution which are visible in every other Family of Infects, Birds, and Beafts; for it is particularly observed in her, that when the is purfued by the Hunters, the runs to hide her Head, and particularly her Eyes behind a Tree, all the rest of her large Body is expofed to view; but as he no longer fees the Hunter, fhe wifely imagines he does not fee her, and that therefore fhe has no danger to apprehend. Now this whole abfurd and ridiculous Conduct, the infpired Writer afcribes to her want of that Wisdom, Understanding and common Senfe, which are to be found in every other Species of Beings, for the Production and Prefervation of their feveral Families. Because God hath deprived her of Wisdom, neither hath he imparted to her Understanding, v. 17. Were we now to extend our Enquiries to the Polity, Architecture, and Oeconomy of Bees and Wafps, and all the other Tribes and Families of Infects, we fhould find them in many refpects excellent Monitors to the Bulk of Mankind. "The Bechive, for inftance, is a School to " which Spectacle de la Nature, Dial. . p. 135 |