or THE EXTERNAL SENSES. 299

notice of, between vifible and tangible objefts.X11 this lan & ua 0 e of blatuie, it may be faid, theanalogies are more perfed; the etymologies, thedeclenfions, and conjugations, if one may fay fo,are more regular than thofe of any human lan-guage. The rules are fewer, and thofe rules ad-mi t of no exceptions.

But though it may have been altogether by theflow paces of obfervation and experience that thisyoung gentleman acquired the knowledge of theconnexion between viflble and tangible objects;we cannot from thence with certainty infer, thatyoung children have not fome inftinftive percep-tion of the fame kind. In him this inftindive pow-er , not having been exerted at the proper fea-fon, may, from difufe, have gone gradually todecay, and at laft have been completely oblitera-ted. Or, perhaps, ( what feems likewife very pof-Able,) fome feeble and unobferved remains of itmay have fomewhat facilitated his acquifltion ofwhat he might otherwife have found it much moredifficult to acquire.

That, antecedent to all experience, the youngof at leaft the greater part of animals pofl'efs fomeinftindive perception of this kind, feems abundant-ly evident. The hen never feeds her young bydropping the food into their bills* as the linnetand the thrulh feed theirs. Almoft as foon as herchickens are hatched, Ihe does not feed them, butcarries them to the field to feed, where they walkabout at their eafe, it would feem, and appearto have the mod diltinct perception of all the

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