On instinct, a lecture |
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abstract ideas Abstraction at pleasure adaptation agent altogether animals appetite build a nest called Instinct called Reason combination Commissary common Common-term consider contemplate Deaf-mute denote description of brutes desire disposition to fly DUBLIN elephant employed employment of language evidently extent form general Signs gent brute gratification higher brutes higher description human mind human wisdom hunger and thirst impelled implanted important impulse indivi inquire instance instinct acts instrument of thought Laura Bridgeman least less lower degree means merely migratory birds Natural History Naturalists observed original Instinct parlour bell Parrots particular branch perceive persons are thinking physical laws picking up straws possess Providence racter rational reach the boat reference sagacity secretion of milk similar sounds expressive speak species stinctive sucks supply supposed swallows tain taught thing thousand different tion train of Reasoning Triangle understand WHATELY words at random young calf
Popular passages
Page 24 - Some, indeed, of the articles consumed admit of being reserved in public or private stores, for a considerable time ; but many, including most articles of animal food, and many of vegetable, are of the most perishable nature. As a deficient...
Page 24 - As it is, many of the most important objects are accomplished by the joint agency of persons who never think of them, nor have any idea of acting in concert, and that with a certainty, completeness, and regularity which probably the most diligent benevolence, under the guidance of the greatest human wisdom, could never have attained.
Page 26 - Yet this object is accomplished far better than it could be by any effort of human wisdom, through the agency of men, who think each of nothing beyond his own immediate interest, — who, with that object in view, perform their respective parts with cheerful zeal, — and combine unconsciously to employ the wisest means for effecting an object, the vastness of which it would bewilder them even to contemplate.
Page 12 - is not the only animal that can make use of language to express what is passing in his mind, and can understand, more or less, what is so expressed by...
Page 26 - It is really wonderful to consider with what ease and regularity this important end is accomplished, day after day, and year after year, through the sagacity and vigilance of private interest operating on the numerous class of wholesale, and more especially retail, dealers. Each of these watches attentively the demands of his neighborhood, or of the market he frequents, for such commodities as he deals in. The apprehension, on the one hand, of not realizing all the profit he might, and, on the other,...
Page 10 - It was known, not merely once or twice, but habitually, to ring the parlour bell whenever it wished the door to be opened. Some alarm was excited on the first occasion that it turned bell-ringer. The family had retired to rest, and in the middle of the night the parlour bell...
Page 26 - ... antagonist muscles regulate the extent of his dealings and the prices at which he buys and sells. An abundant supply causes him to lower his prices, and thus enables the public to enjoy that abundance; while he is guided only by the apprehension of being undersold. On the other hand, an actual or apprehended scarcity causes him to demand a higher price, or to keep back his goods in expectation of a rise.
Page 26 - ... enables the public to enjoy that abundance ; while he is guided only by the apprehension of being undersold ; and, on the other hand, an actual or apprehended scarcity causes him to demand a higher price, or to keep back his goods in expectation of a rise. " For doing this, corn-dealers in particular are often exposed to odium, as if they were the cause of the scarcity ; while in reality they are performing the important service of husbanding the supply in proportion to its deficiency, and thus...
Page 25 - ... and then let him reflect on the anxious toil which such a task would impose on a board of the most experienced and intelligent commissioners, who, after all, would be able to discharge their office but very inadequately.
Page 8 - Instinct, though in a lower degree than most other animals ; his inferiority in these being compensated by his superiority in other respects. And again: as Man possesses Instinct in a lower degree than the brutes, so, in a lower degree than Man, brutes^ — -at least the higher brutes — possess Reason. As some things felt and done by Man are allowed to be instinctive...