Зображення сторінки
PDF
ePub
[ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

M

Virg.

Y Friend Sir ROGER is very often merry with me, upon my paffing fo much of my Time among his Poultry. He has caught me twice or thrice looking after a Bird's Neft, and several times fitting an Hour or two together near an Hen and Chicken. He tells me he believes I am perfonally acquainted with every Fowl about his Houfe; calls fuch a particular Cock my Favourite, and frequently complains that his Ducks and Geese have more of my Company than himself.

I must confefs I am infinitely delighted with thofe Speculations of Nature which are to be made in a CountryLife; and as my Reading has very much lain among Books of natural History, I cannot forbear recollecting upon this Occafion the feveral Remarks which I have met with in Authors, and comparing them with what falls under my own Obfervation; The Arguments for Providence drawn from the natural History 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 least Turn in the Mufcles or Twift 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 Texof them would have been,

ture

THE most violent Appetites in all Creatures are Luft and Hunger: The firft is a perpetual Call upon them to propagate their Kind; the latter to preferve themfelves.

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 Pofterity. Some Creatures caft their Eggs as Chance directs them, and think of them no farther, as Infects and feveral Kinds of Fish; Others of a nicer Frame, find out proper Beds to depofite them in, and there leave them; as the Serpent, the Crocodile, and Oftrich: Others hatch their Eggs and tend the Birth, 'till it is able to shift for it felf.

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 directs all of the fame Species 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 Species. 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 themselves.

IS it not remarkable, that the fame Temper of Weather which raifes this genial Warmth in Animals, fhould cover the Trees with Leaves, and the Fields with Grafs, for their Security and Concealment, and produce fuch infinite Swarms of Infects for the Support and Suftenance of their respective Broods?

IS it not wonderful, that the Love of the Parent fhould be fo violent while it lafts, and that it should laft no longer than is neceffary for the Prefervation 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 fhew the Strength of that Principle in Animals of which I am here fpeaking. "A Perfon who was well skilled in "Diffections opened a Bitch, and as fhe lay in the most exquifite Tortures, offered her one of her young Pup"pies, which fhe immediately fell a licking; and for "the Time feemed infenfible of her own Pain: On "the Removal, fhe kept her Eye fixt on it, and

..

6

"began

[ocr errors]

"began a wailing fort of Cry, which feemed rather to "proceed from the Lofs of her young one, than the "Senfe of her own Torments.

BUT notwithstanding this natural Love in Brutes is much more violent and intense 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 Circum ftance in this Part of Inftinct, we find that the Love of the Parent may be lengthened out beyond its ufual Time, if the Prefervation of the Species 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 fupplying their own Neceffities.

THIS natural Love is not observed in Animals to af cend from the Young to the Parent, which is not at all neceffary for the Continuance of the Species: Nor indeed in reasonable Creatures does it rife in any Proportion, as it spreads it felf downwards; for in all FamilyAffection, we find Protection granted and Favours beftowed, are greater Motives to Love and Tenderness; than Safety, Benefits, or Life received.

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 Preservation, or the Continuance of his Species. Animals in their Generation are wifer than the Sons 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 Obfervrtion.

WITH what Caution does the Hen provide her felf a
Neft in Places unfrequented, and free from Noife and
Disturbance? When the has laid her Eggs in fuch a Man-
VOL. II.
G

ner

ner 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 Suftenance, how pun&tually 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 Season would chill the Principles of Life, and deftroy the Young one, the grows more affi duous 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 Nourifhment, 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 followed 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 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 Species; and when the Birth appears of never fo different a Bird, will cherish it for her In all these Circumstances which do not carry an immediate Regard to the Subsistance of her self or her Species, he is a very Ideot.

own.

THERE is not, in my Opinion, any thing more mysterious in Nature than this Inftinct in Animals, which thus rifes above Reason, 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 explain'd by any known Qualities inherent in the Bodies themselves, nor from any Laws of Mechanifm, but according to the beft Notions of the greatest Philofophers, is an immediate Impreffion from the firft Mover, and the Divine Energy acting in the Creatures,

L

N 121.

Thursday, July 19.

-Jovis omnia plena.

Virg.

SI was walking this Morning in the great Yard that

A belongs to my Friend's Country Houfe, I was

wonderfully pleased to see 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 Step-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 InIftinet, we mean fomething we have no Knowledge of To me, as 1 hinted in my laft Paper, it seems the immediate Direction of Providence, and fuch an Operation of the fupreme Being, as that which determines all the Portions 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 fays, Deus eft Anima Brutorum, God himself is the Soul of Brutes. Who can tell what to call that feeming Sagacity in Animals, which directs them to fuch Food as is pro. per for them, and makes them naturally avoid whatever is noxious or unwholefome? Tully has obferved that a Lamb no fooner falls from its Mother, but immediately and of its own Accord applies it felf to the Teat. pier, in his Travels, tells us, that when Seamen are

G 2

Dam

thrown

« НазадПродовжити »