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Animal Rights History Timeline » [1660-1785] Enlightenment » Joseph Addison

Joseph Addison

Reason-Instinct in Animals

Spectator, No. 120-121

[1711] Joseph Addison, "Reason and Instinct in Animals No. 120. Wednesday, July 18, 1711" and "No. 121. Thursday, July 19, 1711," Spectator [London: 1711-1714] 12th ed. (London: 1793; Google Books: Online Library of Free eBooks).

No. 120, Wednesday, July 18, 1711

Joseph Addison in his discourse on the reason and instinct in animals quotes "a very barbarous Experiment," seeking "pardon in mentioning such an Instance of Cruelty," in order to "shew the Strength of that Principle in Animals of which I am here speaking…this natural Love in Brutes (144)."

There is not, in my Opinion, any thing more mysterious in Nature than this Instinct in Animals, which thus rises above Renason, and falls infinitely short of it. (146)

And although Addison suggests that "one cannot think it the Faculty of an intellectual Being" he does add in conclusion with "the best Notions of the greatest Philosophers" that this instinct is perhaps "Divine Energy acting in the Creatures (147)."

No. 121, Thursday, July 19, 1711

Continuing his discourse the following day, Addison concludes—

From the Consideration of such Animals as lie within the Compass of our Knowledge, we might easily form a Conclusion of the rest, that the same Variety of Wisdom and Goodness runs through the whole Creation. (151)