ceaseless industry, it works, except in the depth, of winter, the whole night long. For when wild, it collects food in the day; and cuts and drags wood in the night; but, when tamed, which can only be done by taking it when very young, it is necessary on account of its restlessness to leave it out in the yard. There it employs itself the whole night, in carrying fire-wood from the pile, and blocking up the door with it so that when the family rise in the morning, they find themselves barricadoed with a quantity of wood, that takes no small time to remove.*

But although the beaver is so useless in a state of captivity, yet we know not if the necessities of man required his education, to what important purposes his industry might be made subservient. It is clear, however, that he loses, or omits to exercise, his origi nal instincts, because they are not needed; and he is not trained to useful habits, because man does not know how to employ them to advantage. If, how ever we take an individual of our own species, who may have advanced to superior skill in any art, from the field of his labour, and place him in a new situation where he cannot exercise it, how ignorant do we often find him, and how awkward in the concerns of life! This is the case even in men whose minds are well imbued with speculative knowledge; that they are as ignorant of many things obvious to the unlettered, as if they had had no experience of the

* See the letter above quoted, from which some of the preceding observations are taken.

world: so that, proficiency in one department does not render a person equally qualified to succeed in another; and the necessities of brutes oblige them, more than those of man, to concentrate their powers on a particular object.

We have spoken of the degradation of kine when domesticated; but we find that a surprising sagacity is developed by education in some countries, highly useful to their possessors. Thus, the bunched oxen of the Hottentots, not only submit to all kinds of domestic labour, but they become favourite domestics, and companions in amusements; and they participate in the habitation and table of their masters. As their nature is improved by the gentleness of their education, and the kind treatment they receive, they acquire sensibility and intelligence, and perform actions which we would not expect from them. The Hottentots train their oxen to war. In all their armies there are considerable troops of these oxen, which are easily governed, and are let loose by the chief when a proper opportunity occurs. They instantly dart with impetuosity upon the enemy. They strike with their horns, kick, overturn and trample under their feet every thing that opposes their fury. They run ferociously into the ranks, which they soon put into disorder, and thus pave the way for an easy victory to their masters.

They are also instructed to guard the flocks; which they conduct with dexterity, and defend them from the attacks of strangers and of rapacious animals.

They are taught to understand signals; and when pasturing, at the smallest signal from the keeper, they bring back and collect the wandering animals. They attack all strangers with fury; so that they prove a great security against robbers. They know every inhabitant of the kraal or village, and these they suffer to approach the cattle with the greatest safety.*

With respect to sheep, Buffon, I think, rashly maintains, that the race must have been long ago extinct, if man had not taken them under his protection. But sheep are endowed with a strong associating principle, and when threatened with an attack, they form a line of battle, and boldly face the enemy. In a natural state, the rams constitute one half of the flock. They join together and form the front. When thus prepared for repelling an assault, no lion or tiger can resist their united impetuosity and force.+

Upon the whole, it seems to be established as a principle, that, where there is no room for the exercise of pure Instinct, either by man's interposition or otherwise, it will languish, like all the natural senses, or even the higher faculties of the mind.

* Smellie, ii. 324. + Ibid, ii, 284.

SECT. II.

On the Perfection of the Natural Senses as distinguishable from Instinct.

In closely examining the subject, in order to ascertain to what principle certain actions of the brutes belong, there seems a propriety at least in our present state of knowledge in distinguishing between instinct and the natural senses. And it must be admitted that there is a perfection of these senses which brutes often retain when in closest familiarity with man. We cannot clearly perceive that the operation of instinct depends on an acute smell or a sharp sight, or on any of the natural senses carried to perfection. For how these should wholly direct the beaver or the bee, is beyond our comprehension. It appears therefore that the perfection of the five outward senses is neither to be accounted an evidence of pure instinct on the one hand, nor of extraordinary sagacity and reason on the other. For it is obvious that a camel may scent water at the distance of half a league in the desert, or a blood-hound may trace his master among hundreds of people in a fair, from the sense of smelling alone; as the vulture's eye may perceive a carcase from heights in the air beyond the power of human vision to reach; yet pure instinct or that mysterious power which operates blindly and uniformly, as in the bee, may have no part in these perceptions. While on the other hand, the instances

of fidelity in the dog, and intelligence in the elephant, are as little to be considered depending on the perfection of the natural senses.

Boyle gives us a remarkable account of acute smell in a dog. "A person of quality, to whom I am near allied, assured me, that to try whether a young bloodhound was well made, he caused one of his servants, who had not killed or touched any of his deer, to walk to a country town, four miles off, and then to a market town three miles distant from that; which done, this nobleman, a competent while after, put the bloodhound upon the scent of the man, and caused him to be followed by a servant or two; the master himself going after to know the event; which was, that the dog, without ever seeing the man he was to pursue, followed him by the scent to the above mentioned places, notwithstanding the multitude of market people who went along in the same way, and of travellers who had occasion to cross it: and when the blood-hound came to the chief market town, he passed through the streets without taking notice of any of the people there, and left not till he had gone to the house where the man he sought for rested himself, and found him in an upper room.'

*

"A gentleman of my acquaintance, who has often occasion to employ blood-hounds, assures me, that if a man have but passed over a field, the scent will lie so as to be perceptible to a good dog of that sort for several hours after. An old ingenious hunter informs