Instinct directs the lower animals not only to the proper objects of gratification, but to the proper mea sure and degree of enjoyment. It performs no such decided functions in the economy of human life ; for even when we know the objects of gratification, we are under temptations to indulge in excess, either of desires or of enjoyment ; and by this means we hever fail to bring misery on ourselves and others. From this source proceed all the moral evils which deform human nature, and overwhelm the world with misery and crimes. And yet it is the presence and pressure of these evils that afford an opportunity of exercising the most exalted virtues, and of advancing the moral dignity of man. It is from our being made capable of knowing good and evil, that we learn to appreciate virtue ; that we recognise an eternal source of excellence ; that we see the extent of moral obligation, and perceive that the destinies of our nature point to something more exalted than the gratifications of sense, or the enjoyments of the present world.
Man could not be a moral agent, if he could not do wrong : his obedience in that case would not be more valuable than that which proceeds from the instinctive impulses of the lower animals. In his state of absolute innocence, when there was nothing to seduce, when the passions were in absolute subjection, and the will had no disposition to stray ; with all these advantages, he could not have been a moral agent, if he had not had an opportunity of doing wrong. Accordingly, we learn from the short but interesting account of the original state of man given in the sacred Scriptures, (an account which appears to he perfectly consistent with the sound est philosophical opinions,) that such an opportunity was afforded him. An arbitrary command was im posed ; a moral restraint, in a state of perfect innocence, would have been absurd and unintelligible ; but he could easily understand the impropriety of violating a positive command, which he felt he had the power to observe or to disobey. Yet still we may some difficulty in perceiving how he should have had an inclination, in his state of innocence, to break through such a slight re straint. An evil agent is therefore introduced, who suggests temptations and inducements to sin ; and he appears to be no superfluous personage in this fatal drama ; for though man could have no excuse for yielding, yet he appears a fitter object of mercy, since he was seduced by the artful insinuations of another. We do not know how far we are entitled to lament this catastrophe. Without it human nature would not have
been what it is: and as it is, we believe it displays the wisdom and goodness of God more fully than would have been done, had man never gone astray. But we must repress all farther speculations on this subject : if they may be indulged at all, they fall more properly under another department of this work.
It is only during the first stage human of life, that the operations of instincts are particularly observable in man : they seem afterwards to merge so completely in reason and experience, that their influence is little noticed. Hunger, thirst, and the sexual appetite, form another important class of active principles; they are common to man with the lower creatures, and are abso lutely necessary for the preservation and continuance of animal life. The immediate object of these feelings is bodily gratification. They originate in the body ; they terminate in the body ; and are attended with un easiness till the means of gratification are procured. They are in their own nature perfectly indifferent as to virtue or vice, but they are productive of most import ant moral consequences, from the pursuits to which they stimulate, from the feelings which they inspire, from the knowledge which they are the means of acquiring, or from the temperance and self-denial which they afford an opportunity of exercising.
There is a remarkable difference between man and the lower animals, with regard to the nature of the food on which they subsist. The various tribes of animals have each a particular species of food appropriated to them. This is so very observable, that it affords grounds for their classification, under the various heads of Car nivorous, Frugivorous, Granivorous, Insectivorous, &c. Sec. But man is Omnivorous : he eats every thing that is eatable. This is a beneficent provision of the Universal Parent, in favour of his rational offspring ; for it affords them an opportunity of multiplying, far beyond any animals of the same size, who depend solely on one species of food. Man lays every department of nature under contribution ; and is thus enabled to pro mote the multiplication and comfort of his species, with out trenching materially, if at all, on the numbers or enjoyments of the lower creatures. There is indeed every reason to believe, that the lower animals, under the dominion of man, are more numerous and more com fortable than they could have been, had they had the world wholly to themselves.