 | Studies of Nature |  |
OF CONFORMITY.
Though conformity be a perception of our reason, I place it at the head of our physical laws, because it is the first feeling we endeavour to gratify in examining natural objects. Nay, there is a connexion so intimate between the physical character of those objects and the instinct of every being possessed of sensibility, that a colour simply is sufficient to rouse the passions of animals. A red object puts the bullock into a rage, and suggests to most fowls and fishes the idea of prey. The objects of Nature display in man a feeling of a higher order, independent of his wants; it is that of conformity. It is by means of the multiplied conformities of Nature that man has formed his own reason; for reason means nothing else but the relation or conformity of things that exist.
Animals have a sensibility only of objects having conformities to their wants; and they have, in this respect, a share of reason as perfect as our own. But man differs from animals in his capacity of extending this sentiment of conformity to all the relations of Nature, however foreign to his personal demands; and this extension of reason has procured him, by way of eminence, the denomination of a rational animal.
It is true, that if all the particular rationality of animals were united, the sum would probably transcend the general reason of man; for human reason has devised most of its
The only character which essentially distinguishes man from the animal is, he is a religious being. They partake not with him of this sublime faculty, the principle of human intelligence. By it man is exalted above the beasts, enabled to form a conception of the general plans of Nature, and supposes an order of things from having caught a glimpse of an Author. It was not Nature which first pointed out GOD to man, but a sense of the DEITY in man which indicated to him the order of Nature. The savages ar religious long before they are naturalists.
Accordingly, by the sentiment of this universal conformity man is struck with all possible conformities, though foreign to him. He takes an interest in the history of an insect; and if his attention is not engaged in behalf of all the insects which surround him, it is because he perceives not their relations, or else the constant habit of seeing them renders them insipid; perhaps it may be some contemptible prejudice, for he is affected still more by moral than physical ideas, and by his passions more than by his reason.
We shall farther remark, that all the sentiments of conformity spring up in the heart of man at the sight of some useful end, which frequently has no relation to his own personal wants; it follows that man is naturally good, because he is rational; seeing the aspect alone of a conformity, though foreign to him, communicates pleasure. From this natural sentiment of goodness the sight of well-proportioned animals conveys to us agreeable sensations, increasing in proportion as the creature unfolds its instinct. Want of conformity also communicates a painful sensation, always excited at the sight of any thing incongruous. We are shocked on looking at a monster, pained to see an animal wanting a foot or an eye, nay, at the sight of incongruity even in insensible objects. Withered plants, mutilated trees, an ill-assorted edifice, hurt our feelings. These sensations are perverted or suppressed in man only by prejudice or by education.
A series of conformities, with a common centre, constitutes order. There are conformities in the members of an animal, but order exists only in the body. Conformity refers to the detail, order to the combination. Order extends our pleasure, by collecting conformities, and fixes them by a determination towards one centre. It discovers at once, in a single object, a succession of particular conformities, and the leading one to which they all refer.
Thus, as being endowed with a reason which embraces all Nature, it affords us pleasure to review the relations between the proboscis of a bee and the nectareous juices of flowers; between those of her thighs, hollowed into spoons, and bristled with hairs, to the fine powder of the stamina which she there collects; the use of a long sting, furnished for the defence of her property, and all the conformities of the organs of this small insect, are more ingenious and in much greater number than those of the largest animals.
The interest, however, grows upon us when we see her covered with a yellow powder, her thighs pendent and half oppressed with her burden, directing her flight across plains, rivers, and shady groves, under points of the wind, with which she is well acquainted, and alighting with a humming sound, on the cavernous trunk of some aged oak; that one, whose particular conformities we have been admiring, is only a single member of a numerous republic; this republic itself is but a small colony of the immense nation of bees spread over the whole earth, from the line to the shores of the frozen oceans. This nation again is subdivided into species, conformably to the variety of flowers; for some being destined to live on flowers which have no depth, such as the radiated, are armed with five hooks, to prevent their sliding on the petals. Others, such as the bees of America, have no stings, because they construct their hives in the trunks of prickly trees, very common there, which accordingly afford them protection. Many are the conformities among other species of bees, totally unknown to us; yet this vast nation is but one little family of the class of flies, of which we know, in our climate alone, near 6000 species, as distinct, as to forms and instincts, as bees themselves are from other flies.
Were we to compare the relations of this volatile class, so
From a sense of the general order two sentiments obviously result; the one throws us imperceptibly into the bosom of the DEITY, and the other recalls us to the perception of our wants; the one exhibits to us, as the original cause, a Being infinitely intelligent without us; the other, as the ultimate end, a very limited being in our own person. These sentiments characterize the spiritual and corporeal powers of man, and are the general sources of the pleasure we derive from the order of Nature.
A bee has a sentiment of the order of her hive, yet knows not how the ants regulate their nest, though she may have seen them labour. To no purpose would she resort, in the event of her hive's being destroyed, to seek refuge, as a republican, in the midst of their republic; she would meet from them no hospitality, no consideration, no compassion. Hence it follows, that the society of animals could not subsist independent of the passions, nor human society independent of virtue. Man alone, of all animals, possesses the sentiment of universal order, that of DEITY himself; and by carrying over the whole earth the virtues which are the fruits of it, whatever may be the differences which prejudice interposes between man and man, it is sure of alluring all hearts to itself.
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