their kind; the latter to preserve themselves.

It is astonishing to consider the different degrees of care that descend
from the parent to the young, so far as is absolutely necessary for the
leaving a posterity. Some creatures cast their eggs as chance directs
them, and think of them no farther, as insects and several kinds of
fish; others, of a nicer frame, find out proper beds to deposite them
in, and there leave them; as the serpent, the crocodile, and ostrich:
Others hatch their eggs, and tend the birth, till it is able to shift
for itself.

What can we call the principle which directs every different kind of
bird to observe a particular plan in the structure of its nest, and
direct all the same species to work after the same model? It cannot be
_Imitation_; for, though you hatch a crow under a hen, and never
let it see any of the works of its own kind, the nest it makes shall be
the same, to the laying of a stick, with all the other nests of the same
species. It cannot be _reason_; for, were animals indued with it to
as great a degree as man, their buildings would be as different as ours,
according to the different conveniencies that they would propose to
themselves.

Is it not remarkable, that the same temper of weather, which raises this
genial warmth in animals, should cover the trees with leaves, and the
fields with grass, for their security and concealment, and produce such
infinite swarms of insects for the support and sustenance of their
respective broods?

Is it not wonderful, that the love of the parent should be so violent
while it lasts, and that it should last no longer than is necessary for