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but it happens * that another existed in this case . This ingenious beast had formerly been used for an ignominious- purpose , According to the custom of the country , criminals had been bound upon his
back for the ^ purpose of being whipped ; and this was indicated by the holes which had been barbarously bored in his ears , to which the criminals were tied . The peasants have a superstitious horror of these animals , so that this badge of dishonour would serve to secure him a free passage .
But 3 > now , what was the impulse , and whence the guide , to this mysterious journey ? Neither instinct nor reason supplies us with any principles which will solve the difficulty ; and the same observation applies to all the above-related instances of the development of a faculty of which we can understand absolutely nothing , and which we cannot reduce to any rule , nor trace to any origin . These
migrations are not instinctive , like the hybernating migrations of certain animals ; for they seem to be prompted by no natural propensity , desire , or sensation , nor are they , for the most part , connected with the preservation of the animal . Neither do they come under the category of rational actions , unless indeed the reason of the lower animals , instead of being absorbed in the dictates of instinct , is far
more capacious in its powers and wider in its scope than human reason . There is , however , a close analogy between some of these locomotive propensities , and the periodical migrations of the inha » bitants of the ocean and of fresh-water rivers . At one season , instinct impels them to swim with the tide , at another , against it ; now they seek the shallows , now the deeper waters ,- at one time lying quietly
at the bottom of the ocean , at another , skimming at the surface . Still there is , so to speak , a motive for all this , and the end is obviously sustentation or propagation : the instinctive design is obvious ; whereas the knowledge which guides an animal over immense tracts of unvisited country must be intuitive , and , as far as our knowledge of nature extends , miraculous .
And this suggests a sentiment with which we shall close this sketch of some of the mysteries of nature , and it is this : we draw certain general conclusions from our very limited observation of nature , and these conclusions we call the laws of nature , and with an . assurance and arrogance of which no rational being ought to be guilty , we call every deviation from these arbitrary laws , anomalies !
If there are any real laws of nature , there can be no anomalies ; if no real laws , then no miracles . But the fact is , Almighty power is bound by no laws nor rules ; and after we have seen and observed all that we can see of the phenomena of nature , we can but say with Job , "Lo ! these are parts of His ways ! " Who shall scan the whole ?
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Untitled Article
but it happens * that another existed in this case . This ingenious beast had formerly been used for an ignominious- purpose , According to the custom of the country , criminals had been bound upon his
back for the ^ purpose of being whipped ; and this was indicated by the holes which had been barbarously bored in his ears , to which the criminals were tied . The peasants have a superstitious horror of these animals , so that this badge of dishonour would serve to secure him a free passage .
But 3 > now , what was the impulse , and whence the guide , to this mysterious journey ? Neither instinct nor reason supplies us with any principles which will solve the difficulty ; and the same observation applies to all the above-related instances of the development of a faculty of which we can understand absolutely nothing , and which we cannot reduce to any rule , nor trace to any origin . These
migrations are not instinctive , like the hybernating migrations of certain animals ; for they seem to be prompted by no natural propensity , desire , or sensation , nor are they , for the most part , connected with the preservation of the animal . Neither do they come under the category of rational actions , unless indeed the reason of the lower animals , instead of being absorbed in the dictates of instinct , is far
more capacious in its powers and wider in its scope than human reason . There is , however , a close analogy between some of these locomotive propensities , and the periodical migrations of the inha » bitants of the ocean and of fresh-water rivers . At one season , instinct impels them to swim with the tide , at another , against it ; now they seek the shallows , now the deeper waters ,- at one time lying quietly
at the bottom of the ocean , at another , skimming at the surface . Still there is , so to speak , a motive for all this , and the end is obviously sustentation or propagation : the instinctive design is obvious ; whereas the knowledge which guides an animal over immense tracts of unvisited country must be intuitive , and , as far as our knowledge of nature extends , miraculous .
And this suggests a sentiment with which we shall close this sketch of some of the mysteries of nature , and it is this : we draw certain general conclusions from our very limited observation of nature , and these conclusions we call the laws of nature , and with an . assurance and arrogance of which no rational being ought to be guilty , we call every deviation from these arbitrary laws , anomalies !
If there are any real laws of nature , there can be no anomalies ; if no real laws , then no miracles . But the fact is , Almighty power is bound by no laws nor rules ; and after we have seen and observed all that we can see of the phenomena of nature , we can but say with Job , "Lo ! these are parts of His ways ! " Who shall scan the whole ?