the Infcription they are to bear. For the human Mind hath several predetermined Taftes and Sentiments, which arife from a Source that lies beyond Experience, Cuftom or Choice; that with abfolute Authority decides the good and bad of the Ideas we receive.

2. To conceive proper Notions of the Predifpofitions of the Minds of animated Creatures, let us turn afide, and make a small Excurfion amongst the Brute Creation, in whom Inftinct is lefs difguifed and lefs complicated than in Man: Brutes nurfed and bred up in the fame great Common, display very different Difpofitions, and follow various Occupations in Life. If they had been all originally of one Temper and Frame of Mind, and had the fame directing Principles of Action from Nature, their untutored Difpofitions would appear for ever the fame, and they would only differ according to their various Powers of Action, nearly as Sparrow-Hawks do from Eagles, as Swift's Houynhnms from a Nation of Philofophers, or as Locke's wonderful Parrot from a tractable Servant; they would run along one Courfe of Life, as large and fmall Waves pursue each other down the fame Current.

But in the Common of Nature, and in the fame Scenes, in Woods, Plains and Defarts, we meet with Inhabitants of very different Characters and Occupations; we meet with Tyrants who lay wafte the Foreft, and roam in Search of Blood: we meet with peaceable Colonies, who yet retain the Dispofitions of the Golden Age, and feed only on Vegetables; and with Tribes of induftrious Labourers, who work in Wood, or live by Fishing, or by weaving Nets in which to take their Prey. That the Occupations and Manner of Life of the Brute Creation, are not the Effects of Cuftom, or Experience of their Powers or Capacities of Action, but of a predetermined, innate Difpofition, appears from num

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berlefs

berless Instances; Cocks ftrike with their Legs before their Spurs grow, and Bulls pufh before their Horns appear: the Puppies of all Beafts of Prey, while they are yet offenceless and innocent of Blood, play and exercise themselves in the Arts of Destruction; while the helpless Animals, who are devoted to be their Prey, practife, in unexperienced Youth, the Shifts of Flight and Efcape. Ducklings juft parted from the shell, and hatched by a Hen, rejoice at the Water, and the Moment they come to it, launch thereon with the utmost Security, accomplished Sailors before they row, or ftrike the first Oar; young Birds hatched in a Cage by a Stepmother, and brought along with her to a Country, where none of the Species ever dwelt before, fhall not follow the Step-mother's Plan, or be led afide by acquired Knowledge, but if they find Materials, build exactly in the Model of their Ancestors, without the leaft Deviation; as they never quit the Plan of their Forefathers, neither do they improve by Time and Experience, or perform any Work of Fancy. No bird was ever known to alter the Form of his Family Neft, or to contrive a more commodious Nursery for her Young; nor, as an ingenious Writer obferves, did any Hive of Bees ever add or retrench a single Angle in the Building of their Cells.

3. In looking over the Inftincts of Animals, there are two Observations we can hardly mifs: the one is, that they are the Effects of Calculation and Defign, which has fo finely adapted them to their Powers of Execution; and the fecond is, that this Calculation is not theirs. How deftructive had it been to the Species of Ducks, if they had fuch Boldness to plunge into the Waves without an Oar to strike, or an unknown Means of keeping out the Water from penetrating their Feathers. The prodigious Ornament of the Lion is but the external

Part

Part of the Defign of Nature: when you difcover that the taming of this fierce Animal is the most difficult Undertaking imaginable, and that his Wrath and Thirst of Blood are not to be fubdued, you then fee the Meaning of the Armament of the deftructive Creature. It is equally remarkable, that in the regular stated Actions of very ftupid Animals, who have hardly any Traces of Prudence or Reflection, we discover an Intimacy a priori with the moft fecret Powers of Nature. Hens and Turkies perform Operations very familiarly, which after they are known, and become the Objects of our Enquiry, no Depth of Philofophy can account for. Shall we fay, that the Hen and Turkey, foreseeing Powers and Effects, which Sir Ifaac Newton could not calculate, nor even explain, undertook the Office of Hatching? Is it not evident that we must attribute the Procefs to fome Being, who is acquainted with the Seeds of Life in the Egg, who knows the Powers of Heat, and the juft Degree neceffary for warming the Embrio into Life?

There is no Need of heaping Inftances of an Economy, that is taken Notice of by every Writer of Natural History, and occurs to every one in familiar Life. I will proceed to lay it down as a general Maxim, that it is the common Method of Nature to direct her animal Creation by Instinct or unacquired Difpofition; and from it I draw this undeniable Conclufion, that it is equally practicable for Nature to direct Man as the Brute by Instinct or Predisposition; I do not mean from the Poflibility to bring an Argument for the Fact, but only to fhew, that there is no Violence in fuppofing human Inftincts, and that no Argument lies against them from the Difficulty of conceiving their Nature or Operation, seeing that the fame Difficulties remain in Force against the Inftinct of Brutes, which neverthelefs are certain and real.

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4. But

4. But it must be carefully noted, that Instincts and Predifpofitions do not infer innate Ideas, Rules, Maxims, or Infcriptions on the Imagination. I already obferved, that the Ufe of the words Infcription, Imprinting, and Impreffion, applied to the Mind in a proper Senfe, has led the modern Philofophers into great Confufion and Error. I likewife took Notice, that the human Inclinations, Appetites, Sentiments, and even Ideas, pass away totally off the Mind, and have no Existence; yet by their Return, they demonftrate that they are not loft like a defaced Infcription, and that they are in the Mind in a Manner very different from a Propofition on Paper, or . an Infcription on a Pedestal. I own at the fame Time, there is no conceiving how a Man can have a Sentiment, a Tafte for Mufic in his Frame of Mind, or an Idea in his Memory, without perceiving them there. We fee nothing in Matter correfpond to this Property of the, intellectual Part of Man; yet I muft here call to my Affiftance the Axiom I premifed, that we must not argue against the Reality of the Fact, which we intuitively know, merely because we do not comprehend the Manner of its Exiftence.

5. When we withdraw our Thoughts from metaphorical Images, and place them on the real Operations of the Mind, we find that fome Instincts of great Influence do not appear until certain Seafons of Life, and certain preordained Ideas call them forth to Action; nothing can be more different from the Nature of Infcriptions on Paper or Stone: Infcriptions are cleareft and moft legible when they are fresh, but the Inftincts of Animals are fometimes imperceptible in tender Youth, and are difplayed only when the Mind comes to Maturity, and the Seafon of Paffion is arrived; the mutual Inclinations of the Sexes in Birds is warmed into a Flame by the Approach of Spring, and every Bird then discovers

without

without Mistake the Object of his Engagements: By this Obfervation we are led to take Notice of the univerfal Design that runs through the Creation, and governs all the animated Inhabitants of the Earth. The Minds of Animals are calculated for the Objects that in Process of Time are to attach them; at the Presence of thofe Objects they feel a new Defire, which is the fecret Intelligence of Nature, and it is this Pre-engagement that forms their Characters, and leads them to their different Occupations and Courfe of Life: It directs the various Tribes or Species to their peculiar hereditary Eftates in the Common of Nature; it Peoples Lakes and Bogs, Mountains and particular Trees, with their proper Inhabitants, who feel a real amor Patriæ, that will fuffer them to reside no where else; and this divine Intelligence inftructs them in their different Occupations by which they live, and is the ingenious Arbiter of their Pleasures and Enjoyments.

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6. What I have been faying requires the fulleft and clearest Light, in order to bring us acquainted with the Laws of the Mind. A modern Philofopher objects to me, and fays, Let us take the following Propofitions: A Thrush in the Spring courts the Company of his Mate; a Man has a Taste for Mufic; thefe Propofitions are formed of Ideas, 'the Ideas are not innate, neither are the Propofitions 'that are formed of them.' I own it, learned Sir; but I neither faid Propofitions nor Ideas are innate; on the contrary, I am convinced they are not; and yet it is certainly true, that the Mind is fo framed before the Reception of the Idea, as upon its Appearance to feel a Paffion, an Appetite, or Inclination, that was before out of Perception, and was neither engraved nor imprinted, fo as to be perceivable. The Duckling has no original Idea of Water, yet the Moment he defcries it, he is moved with a new Defire to swim; he flings himself upon

it