The star of the north. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1849-1866, 1857-04-29
From the Pabiis Ledger.
WHAT rs INSTINCT.

It is no Improbable study in natural bis.
tory TO trace back the history of an instinct.
Teach spaniel to beg for food, and you
often trace in its pups tendency to the
same habit Let setter be trained 10 set,
and its progeny will do SO instinctively,
though they may never even witness the
action performed. The chicken, though
countless generations, pick up crumbs and
insects from the ground, while the wood.
pecker, with beak adapted for it, sits "tap.
ping the hollow beech tree.n
We may take the eggs of the duck, and
the unconscious hen will sit upon them
and hatch them, and guard the progeny a.
her own; but no sooner have these little
ones cracked the shell, than by the inward
impulse, they seek for the water and swim
off, 10 the infinite terror of the poor hen
who hatched them, and who vainly tries
to lure them away from what seems to het
to be their certain destruction.
This wisdom of the web foot, this pro-
pensiiy, or instinct, whence comes ill.,
Neither by education nor example, that 10
clear; neither is it anything communicated
by the hen, nor her life, nor her instincts
in any way transferred; neither is 1t any Pc
culiarity in the matter of the egg, as analy.
sis could probably show. Is it then the rs-
salt of organization? And if so, what does
this mean but the result of motionf 3,
If we take an egg, and put the wet tip Of
the tongue to the large end of it. we at once
become sensible of gentle heat, il the egg
is alive. This is then the germ Of all the
after vibrations of life, stimulated by the
vital warmth of the hen, and these pulsa-
tons transmit the instructive tendency that
impels the duck to the water, embodying
kind of memory. or impulse, from former
generations, quite distinct from that of the
hen. These vibrations organize the fluid Of
the egg into form corresponding with the
idea of which the whole past suggests as the
intended future of the bird. .-.. "a,
The uneducated but honest Christian sees
or thinks he sees, in this, however, the i'm.
mediate finger of God, part of the all per-
vading mind of Him in whom we live and
move, and have our being His wisdom
directly imparting wisdom to each creature
according to its wants.
But, as we have already seen, more ex.
tended observation will indicate to reflect.
i've mind that instinct is, after all, part, at
least the result of fixed laws, and but an in.
nate tendency TO reproduce actions that are
habitual in the parent. And this very law,
| SO fat from allowing us to lose sight of q
! designer, will conduct us back to precon.
certing mind, comprehending, arranging
and rewarding all actions, SO that each vic.
lation shall consolidate into an habitually
recurring purpose, each purpose into an in.
stinct, and each instructive habit shall en-.
tirely mould even the physical system in
accordance with the whole-sharpening the
beaks and following the bones of birds, giv-
ing web feet to water fowl and claws to
beasts of prey, the immatenal thus forming
the material.
II then the differences of instincts are an
merely those of development Of the inten,
tions and habits of the varions animals,
through the course of ages aRd generations,
and if every exercise of every habit has in
it the tendency 10 reproduce itself and 10
become hereditary and instructive, it in no
measure lessons the marks Of a purpose in
creation. Should ii seem to remove us a
step further from the designer, it only thus
enables US to take broader views of His pro-
found design.