our own, may be true, but it is
exercised to an extent equal to their wants, and they look no further;
that is to say, that if any want not prepared for, or anything should
take place interfering with their habits and economy, instinct will
enable them to meet the difficulty. There is nothing more wonderful
than the application of mechanical power by ants. No engineer could
calculate with greater nicety, and no set of men work together with such
combination of force. After they have made ineffectual attempts to
remove a heavy body, you will observe them to meet together, consult
among themselves, and commence an entire new plan of operations. Bees,
also, are always prepared to meet any new difficulty. If the _sphinx
atropos_, or death's head moth, forces its way into the hive, the bees
are well known, after having killed it with their stings, to embalm the
dead body with wax--their reason for this is, that the body was too
large for them to remove through the passage by which it entered, and
they would avoid the unpleasant smell of the carcass. It may be argued,
that instinct had always imparted to them this knowledge; but if so,
they must have had a fresh accession of instinct after they had been
domiciled with men: for it is well known that the hole in the tree, in
which the wild bees form their cells, is invariably too small to admit
any animal larger than themselves, and the bodies of such sized animals
they could remove with as much ease as they do the bodies of their own
dead.

I could cite a hundred instances, which would prove that animals have
invention independent of the instinct handed down from generation to
generation. I will, however, content myself with one instance of
superior invention in the elephant, which occurred at Ceylon. Parties
were employed felling timber in the forests of Candia, and this timber,
after having been squared, was dragged to the depot by a large party of
elephants, who, with their keepers, were sent there for that purpose.
This work was so tedious, that a large truck was made, capable of
receiving a very heavy load of timber, which might be transported at
once. This truck was dragged out by the elephants, and it was to be
loaded. I should here observe, that when elephants work in a body,
there is always one who, as if by common consent, takes the lead, and
directs the others, who never refuse to obey him. The keepers of the
elephants, and the natives, gave their orders