The Hot Springs star. (Hot Spings [Hot Springs], Dakota [Dakota Territory, i.e. S.D.]) 1886-189?, 1890-11-07
MIND svPeaseoEs INSTINCT.

Of the richest regions on the globe.
MIND SuPERsEoEs INSTINCT.
Now Non Has Lost Many Gifts Possessed
By b Lower Animals.
II the doctrine DO true that man is
really the heir Of all the various species
and genera OF tho animal kingdom, it
seems o little hard upon us, says tho
American Analyst, that oven by way Of
exception VIC inherit none of the most
marvellous instincts Of those species
n genera, and have to DO content with
those greater but purely human fac
ulttes by which ever the most wonder
full Of animal instincts have bcen some
how extinguished. Sir John Lubbock
maintains with o good deal Of plausi-
btlity that there are insects, and very
likely cvcn higher animals, which per-
ceive colors OF which we have no
glimpse and hear sounds which arc to
as i%naudiblc. Yet VIC never hear of o
heman rctina that includes in its vision
those colors depending on vibrations'of
the other which arc too slow or too
rapid for u ordinary eyes, nor of .,
human car which IL cntraneed with mu-
sic that to the great majority of our
species is absolutely inaudible.
Again, wo never hear OF a human be.
ing who could perform tho feat, of
which VIC were told only recently, of q
bloodhound. In a dark night it fol-
lowed up for three miles tho trail of q
thief with whom tho bloodhound could
have never been in contact Che had Just
purloincd somo rolls Ut tan from the
lanyard in which tho dog was chained
up). and finally sat down under tho tree
In which tho man had taken refuge.
Why, we wonder, arc those finer pow
ers for discriminating and following tho
track OF tho cont which so many of the
lower animals possess entirely cx-
tinguished in nan ii man BIO tho real
heir of all the various genera which
show power inferior to his own?
We Q no trace in animals Of that
high enjoyment Of the finer scents
which mako tho blossoming of tho
spring flowers 30 great a delight to
human beings, and yet mc1 are entirely
destitute Of that almost uncrring power
Of tracking tho path OF an odor, which
seems to BIO ono Of tho principal gifts OF
many quadrupcds and some birds. 1t is
the same with the power of q dog or cat
to find its way back to a homo to which
1t is attached, but from which 1t has
been taken by a route that it can not
possibly follow on its return, even it it
had tho power of observing that route,
which usually it has not. Nothing could
be moro convenient than such u power
to a lost child. But no ono over heard
of any child who possessed it.
Still moro cnviable is that instinct
possessed by so many birds of crossing
great tracts of land and sea without ap-
parcntly any landmarks or scenarios to
guide them, and of reaching a quarter of
the globo which many OF them have
never visited before, while those who
have visited it before have not visited il
often enough to learn tho way-at least
by any rulo which, in like circum-
stances, would be of any use to human
intelligence. Tho migratory birds must
certainly bc in possession OF either
senses or instincts entirely beyond tho
range of human Imagination, and yetno
one ever heard of tho survival of such n
sense of instinct in any member of our
race. 1t may be said, indeed, that mon
have either lnncritcu or reproduced tho
slavo-making instinct of somo Of tho
military ants, though that unfortunate
ana degrading instinct does not appear
to have boon inherited by any of tho
higher animals which intervene between
tho insects and our own race; bit this
only enhances the irony of our destiny,
II We do, indeed, in any sense inherit
from these insect artistocracics one Of
tho most disastrous instincts Of
the audacious but inlolcnt Great
urcs which fight 80 much better
than they work. II VIC have not
inherited tho architectural instincts OF
bees DE- beavers, nor tho spinning in
stincts Of spiders, nor tho power of tho
dog to track out his home, it is a little
sad that VIC should have inherited tho
ono disastrous instinct of the ant by
which it makes itself dependent on q
more timid and industrious species of its
own race, and thereby loses tho power
TO help itsolf.
What is still more curious is that even
where human beings have wholly cxcop-
tional and ~unheard-of powers they be-
tray no traces of the exceptional and
unhcard-of powers of the races whose
vital organization we arc said to inner.
1t. Tho occasional appearance of very
rarc mathematical powers, for instance,
so far from being in any sense explica-
bio from below, looks much moro like
inspiration from above. Tho calculate
ing boy who could net oven give any ac-
count of tho process whereby no arrived
NJ nonnnak ~Dcv1<c .,l,3.l l..i.-A-
mathematician took some time to verify,
certainly was not rcviving in himself
any of tho rarc powers of the lower
tribes of animals. Nor do the prodigics
in music who show such marvellous
power in infancy recall to us any in
stinct of tho bird, tho only musical
creature except ourselves. Still less, of
course, docs great moral genius-tha