In Germany it has of late been attempted to be shown that every man is possessed of a sixth sense, though of a very different kind from those just referred to; for it is a sense not only common to every one, but to the system at large; and consists in that peculiar kind of internal but corporeal feeling respecting the general state of one's health, that induces us to exult in being as light as a feather, as elastic as a spring; or to sink under a sense of lassitude, fatigue, and weariness, which cannot be accounted for, and is unconnected with muscular labour or disease. (Good's Study of Medicine.)

But, as far as I am capable of judging, there are no good grounds for this hypothesis.

The following is one of the most extraordinary instances I have met with of this faculty of finding home, and is communicated on the authority of Lieutenant Alderman, Royal Engineers, who was acquainted with the fact.*

In March, 1816, an ass, the property of Captain Dundas, R.N., then at Malta, was shipped on board the Ister frigate, Captain Forrest, bound from Gibraltar for that island. The vessel having struck on some sands off the Point de Gat, at some distance from the shore, the ass was thrown overboard to give it a chance of swimming to land, a poor one, for the sea was running so high, that a boat which left the ship was lost. A few days afterwards, however,

* See Introduction to Entomology, by Kirby and Spence, vol. 2, .502.

when the gates of Gibraltar were opened in the moruing, the ass presented himself for admittance, and proceeded to the stable of Mr. Weeks, a merchant, which he had formerly occupied, to the no small surprise of this gentleman, who imagined that from some accident, the animal had never been shipped on board the Ister. On the return of this vessel to repair, the mystery was explained; and it turned out, that Valiante, as the ass was called, had not only swam safely to shore, but, without guide, compass, or travelling map, had found his way from Point de Gat to Gibraltar,-a distance of more than 200 miles, through a mountainous and intricate country, intersected by streams, which he had never traversed before; and in so short a period, that he could not have made one false turn. His not having been stopped on the road, was attributed to the circum. stance of his having been formerly used to whip criminals upon, which was indicated to the peasants, who have a superstitious horror of such asses, by the holes in his ears, to which the persons flogged were tied."

Lord Monboddo relates the following singular anecdote of a serpent. “I am well informed of a tame serpent in the East Indies, which belonged to the late Dr. Vigot, and was kept by him in the suburbs of Madras. This serpent was taken by the French, when they invested Madras, in the late war, and was carried to Pondicherry in a close carriage. But from thence, he found his way back again to his

old quarters, which it seems he liked better, though Madras be distant from Pondicherry above 100 miles. This information, he adds, I have from a lady, who then was in India, and had seen the serpent often before his journey, and saw him after he returned.”*

In considering the very singular acts above noticed, which are observed in so many different species of the lower animals, it would seem that they arise from some natural sense of which we are wholly ignorant, and perhaps can form no more reasonable conception than of the cause of magnetical attraction. For as the acts themselves do not appear to be of essential importance in the economy of nature, like those which embrace the care of young and the supply of food, (unless the periodical migrations of some animals be an exception to this remark,) it is most probable that, however mysterious, the acts in question are not from immediate supernatural agency, but from the determination of some hidden physical influence.

SECT. IV.

On the power of Reasoning, or drawing inferences in Animals.

If we come to consider the instances of attachment, cunning, fidelity, sagacity, gratitude, &c. in many of the lower animals, as well as the difference between

* See Ancient Metaph. vol. 2. book iv. chap. 6.

old and young in point of experience and usefulness, we cannot refer them to Instinct as above explained. For we find them so numerous and well authenticated, and these individual actions so diversified and adapted to times and circumstances, that if man is beholden to Reason for this power of adaptation, we must also admit that the brutes are likewise possessed of a degree of rationality. For as far as we are enabled to judge of the uniformity of Instinct, and of the power of the natural senses, these instances of sagacity belong neither to one nor the other. Consequently they must belong to Reason, or that intermediate power which compares and combines, adapting means to ends, and varying these means according to emergencies. For, supposing the higher orders of brutes are conscious of the acts, they can be classed with no other operations of mind, with which we are acquainted.

Yet it would appear, that all the acts of apparent reasoning in the lower animals have reference to some immediate object of perception, or depend on the faculty of memory. As they seem to be nearly incapable of forming any abstract notions or speculations apart from sensible objects; and the want of articulate language must ever oppose an insurmountable barrier to their progress in acquired knowledge, beyond the merest individual experience.

Of simple acts of comparison between a few ideas, we have numberless examples in the brute creation, as well as of their using means to attain their ends.

To begin with a few plain illustrations: An old monkey was shown in Exeter Change, who having lost his teeth, when nuts were given to him, took a stone and cracked them one by one; thus using tools to effect his purpose.

A friend of Dr. Darwin saw on the north coast of Ireland above a hundred crows preying upon muscles, which is not their natural food; each crow took a muscle up into the air twenty or forty yards high, and let it fall on the stones, and thus by breaking the shell got possession of the animal. Ravens, we are told, often resort to the same contrivance. And a lady of the Doctor's acquaintance saw a little bird repeatedly hop upon a poppy stem, and shake the head with its bill, till many seeds were scattered, when it settled on the ground, and picked up the seeds.

Lord Bacon tells us of a raven, "which in a drought, threw pebbles into an hollow tree where she espied water, that the water might rise so as she might come to it."*

Linnæus informs us that the martin dwells on the outside of houses in Europe under the eaves; and that when it has built its nest the sparrow frequently takes possession of it. The martin unable to dislodge his intruding enemy, convokes his companions, some of whom guard the captive, whilst others bring clay, completely close up the entrance of the nest, then fly away, leaving the sparrow to be suffocated."

* See Advancement of Learning, book ii.