temper irritable. The feeling of moisture on the system is illustrated in the following example :

"How To FIND WATER IN THE DESERT.-When the water begins to run short, and the known fountains have failed, as is too often the sad hap of these desert wells, fortunate is the man who owns a tame chacma, or 'babian,' as it is called. The animal is first deprived of water for a whole day, until it is furious with thirst, which is increased by giving it salt provisions, or putting salt into its mouth. This apparent cruelty is, however, an act of true mercy, as on the chacma may depend the existence of itself and the whole party. A long rope is now tied to the baboon's collar, and it is suffered to run about wherever it chooses, the rope being merely used as a means to prevent the animal from getting out of sight. The baboon now assumes the leadership of the band, and becomes the most important personage of the party. First it runs forward a little, then stops, gets on its hind feet, and sniffs up the air, especially taking care of the wind and its direction. It will then, perhaps, change the direction of its course, and after running for some distance, take another observation. Presently it will spy out a blade of grass, or similar object, pluck it up, turn it on all sides, smell it, and then go forward again. And thus the animal proceeds until it leads the party to water, guided by some mysterious instinct, which appears to be totally independent of reasoning, and which loses its powers in proportion as reason gains dominion.". Wood's Natural History.

The feeling which we call, and know by "damp air," is here portrayed in its excessive sensitiveness. I might go through the other powers of sense, but the law of sensitiveness or negativeness, has been sufficiently illustrated to indicate how the powers called "instinct" operate to supply the involuntary portion of animals with nutriment. The principle or law of affinity, or repulsion, guides animals-they smell; the scent from the solid is agreeable or disagreeable to the species, and so they take or refuse. Man is in civilised society less sus

ceptible to this power than when in a so-called savage state. Civilization so mixes substances, and creates artificial inclinations; that he hardly knows the taste or smell of primitive vegetable productions.

Instinct, or the perception of powers in a foreign substance, which would be favourable or unfavourable to the species to which it belongs, is in its magnitude and power in nature, the simple law of "demand and supply." Negative and positive-receiving and giving, is the play of all substances, animate and inanimate, interlacing and weaving themselves into patterns, or forms of harmony and beauty; and in proportion as the instinct substance receives the substance it longs for, so is its happiness felt and enjoyed, and that as vividly, and as energetically, as it is felt by man, though it be only a vegetable, animal, bird, or fish. If we trace the powers of instinct still further, we perceive we have reached the half-way house between life simple, and intellect as displayed in man. If we read the habits of many kinds of animals, we are inclined to give them intellectuality; but on arranging them into species, we at once perceive the power is localised to usually a solitary predominant energy or faculty, as seen in the ant, the bee, the spider, the beaver, the tailor-bird, the fox, and others. On an examination of the construction of those portions of living power, we perceive two physical facts, which explain the reason for the distinct faculties they possess. Take the microscope and examine those of a diminutive size; or the usual eye power we possess, to examine the larger objects we have pointed out, and each has a head; and that head has a peculiar form or shape, which shape on the one hand gives the power of idiosyncrasy, or one dominant power which rules the entire voluntary action of the animal; on the other hand, the entire harmony of make and shape of the animal, to use that power. Take the beaver, the mole, the spider, and the bee; minutely examine their structure, and the anatomy and perfection of their parts in adaptation for their peculiar habits of life, would fill a volume. The bee, for instance,

has the wing for flight, so as to fly from flower to flower; -the hair or brush over its body rubs the pollen off the flower as it ferrets into the nectar spot-it then rubs the dust or pollen carefully off, and kneads it with the nectar into little cakes, and puts them into the groove or depression in the inner surface of its thigh, which is over-arched by elastic hairs, so arranged as to act the part of a wicker lid. Here is a beautiful adaptation of physical structure for the duties it has to perform in the harmony of nature-hunger, or the negative principle in the bee, causes it to search for food; it finds it, and brush and thigh are brought into use instinctively for food to satisfy that hunger, and the collected surplus is carried to friends at home; the very slaughter of the drones arises from the female rancour of the queen. The queen reigns over her amazons, her will is the law-let the queen be removed from the hive, and the drones are allowed to live. Investigate its habits carefully, and each habit arises from the use or exercise involuntarily given to a physical peculiarity of structure. So is it throughout nature-all is on the principle of take and give, each in its order or species.

Instinct has its existence also in a higher range of power than is, or can be observed, in the mere physical frame work. The natural instinct to the outburst of hereditary propensities; is a power conveyed by the parents before birth to their offspring. We do not wish to go into elaborate and metaphysical disquisitions to prove that the existence and power of the nature and propensities of a mother are given to its young before birth, and developed in after life; because, unless facts are produced to sustain the declaration, an antagonistic reasoner might step forward and give battle; leaving the reader in possession of that unenviable drag-chain-doubt.

As the father of a large family, and the relative and acquaintance of many families, facts mental and physical, have come under my notice. More especially did facts of an extraordinary kind cluster round me while examining the nature and properties of mesmerine-the effect body had on body,

and mind had on body; hereafter, I shall have to enter more fully into this, the ethereal portion of our subject; but deny it who will, I have seen over and over, marks on the human body of the child, produced by the involutary act of the mother, by her touching parts of her own body when at the climax of disappointment on the non-obtaining of some article of food longed for-the touch on her own body has produced the distinct form of the object longed for on the same part of the child's body. When no external mark has been left, an internal action of a more subtle kind has been imparted. The mother has craved unsuccessfully for eels, for oysters, for rump steak, for fruit;-the child, after birth, will pine, languish, put its tongue out as if wanting something yet unsupplied; on enquiry of the mother, she perhaps faintly remembers what she had longed for;-get it, give it, and though before the child has tasted nothing but its natural milk, it will suck and devour the object the mother longed for, till it is satisfied; the child then no longer pines, but gains flesh, and health. These are bold free drawings from nature; if they create a smile, still they are as true, and as vulgar, as the comic gesticulations of the lower part of a man's face when he is busy enjoying his dinner composed of the same substances. Man is an animal as well as an intellectual being; we must therefore consider him under these phases. Carry the principle I have opened up to your view as to the action of parents on children before birth, and the law applies to the father's power as well as the mother's; and you have the key to the wonderful and mysterious developments of instinctpassions, and propensities, as portrayed in man and animals; which explains how habits, and even lineaments of face, and the roll of grandsire's walk re-appears, after one or two generations of children had apparently effaced from the mind of living parents, the remembrance of past relatives. INSTINCT and the INVOLUNTARY powers of man are ONE, yet Two; they blend as husband and wife ought to blend, and work together for mutual and relative good. They work in union

with the other two great powers in man, the intellectual, and the voluntary.

The question may arise in some minds:-Why is Instinct? The answer is that unless there was sensibility, or sensitiveness in man and animated nature, improper food, or, scientifically, improper chemical substances would be taken into the stomach; all would be resolved into chaosconfusion, mistake, and death would reign, and leave the earth without the sound of life.

The extent of instinct is universal-it reigns in man, animals, fish, fowl, vegetables; and, to a degree, in minerals, gases, atmospheres, and electricity. On a lower scale, instinct is perceptible even in the Barometer.

"THE LATE GALES.-The gale of the 25th and 26th of October, 1859, was preceded and foretold as to strength and general (polar) northerly direction, by a low barometer, (29°1 at the sea level,) and, for the season, a very low thermometer (22 degrees). The storm of the 31st of October and the 1st November was preceded by a very low barometer (28°8 at sea level,) and a thermometer at 50 degrees, indicating a storm from the southward or equatorial direction. Most people understand that as 'the glass' falls or rises rain or sunshine may be anticipated. In reality, however, the barometer will do much more than this. If it is carefully studied according to proper rules, and interpreted in conjunction with other indications, its warnings are circumstantial in the extreme, and all but infallible."

While on the subject of atmospheres, I may refer to another proof of the instinctive power in nature, as developed in the sky as an indicator of the weather:-The Board of Trade has issued for the use of our sailors the following simple maxims :

"The colours of the sky at particular times afford wonderfully good guidance. Not only does a rosy sunset presage fair weather, and a ruddy sunrise bad weather, but there are other tints which speak with equal clearness and accuracy. A bright yellow sky in the evening indicates wind; a pale yel