m
stationary as a community; as instinct implies a definite portion of
intuitive sagacity, wisdom, or reason, commensurate to their wants and
destination. The early manifestation of instinctive wisdom, is the best
reply to those philosophers who have argued against its existence; for
in a multitude of instances it is exhibited, anterior to the possibility
of experience. Man, although gifted with superior capacities, and
susceptible of higher attainments, does not, from the paucity of his
instincts, arrive during many years at the same maturity both of mind
and body, which most animals display within the space of a few weeks; so
necessary and important is the protracted period of infancy to the
edifice and destination of the human mind.

FOOTNOTE:

[18] Notwithstanding we cannot sufficiently estimate the perfection of
the senses in animals, yet in some instances we are enabled to observe,
in our own species, the importance which a lower sense acquires, in
consequence of the privation of those which are deservedly considered
the more noble. A singular case of this nature occurred in Scotland, the
particulars of which have been published by Mr. James Wardrop an eminent
surgeon and oculist, 4to. London, 1813. This person, James Mitchel, was
born, very nearly blind and deaf. Although he was not deprived of every
glimmering and vibration, yet he was incapable of discerning an object,
or hearing an articulate sound; consequently to him the visible world
was annihilated. A ray of light might serve to delight him as a toy, but
it did not enable him to have the visible perception of any
substance:--his nerves, indeed, appeared to be agitated by the
concussion of sound, yet it was wholly impossible to lodge in his ear
the missile of a word. Being thus deprived of the two nobler senses, his
_mind_ was constituted of the perceptions he acquired by the organs of
touch, smell, and taste. His attention was enduring, and his curiosity
eager, far beyond those of any animal. Mr. Wardrop observes that "his
organs of touch, of smell, and of taste, had all acquired a
preternatural degree of acuteness, and appeared to have supplied, in an
astonishing manner, the deficiencies in the senses of seeing and
hearing. By those of touch and smell, in particular, he was in the habit
of examining every thing within his reach. Large objects, such as the
furniture of the room, he felt over with his fingers, whilst those which
were more minute, and whic