Natural History And Antiquities of Selborne volume 1
Natural History And Antiquities of Selborne volume 1
White Gilbert
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M it 266 THE NATURAL HISTORY [LETT. LETTER C. TO THK HONOURABLE DAIXES BARRIXGTON. THEY wlio write on natural history cannot too frequently advert to instinct, that wonderful, but limited faculty, which, in some instances, raises the brute creation as it were above reason, and in others leaves them so far below it. Philosophers have defined instinct to be that secret influence by which every species is impelled naturally to pursue, at all times, the same way or track, without any teaching or ex...ample ; whereas reason, without in- struction, would lead them to do that by many methods which instinct effects by one alone. Now this maxim must be taken in a qualified sense ; for there are instances in which instinct does vary and conform to the circumstances of place and convenience. It has been remarked that every species of bird has a mode of nidification peculiar to itself ; so that a schoolboy would at once pronounce on the sort of nest before him. This' is the case among fields and woods, and wilds ; but, in the villages round London, where mosses and gossamer, and cotton from vegetables, are hardly to be found, the nest of the chaffinch has not that elegant finished appearance, nor is it so beautifully studded with lichens, as in a more rural district : and the wren is obliged to construct its house with straws and dry grasses, which do not give it that rotundity and compactness so remarkable iu the edifices of that little architect.
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