Stories about the Instinct of Animals, Their Characters, and Habits — Context and Discussion

Instinct vs. Moral Anecdote

The catalog lists 'Instinct' as a subject, but the excerpts rarely use the term. Instead, the book emphasizes gratitude, tameness, and recognition. In the Androcles story, the lion's behavior is attributed to 'gratitude' and 'humanity,' not instinct. Similarly, the Sir George Davis anecdote describes a lion that 'purred like a cat when pleased' and 'fawning like a cat when expressing its affection.' These are framed as personal bonds, not innate behaviors. The word 'instinct' appears in the title and chapter headings, but the narratives prioritize emotional and moral lessons over scientific explanation. This suggests the catalog subject may reflect the publisher's marketing rather than the book's core content.

The Frame Narrative and Its Effects

The book uses a frame narrative: 'Uncle Thomas' tells stories to children, who occasionally interject. For example, after the Androcles story, a child says, 'Oh, what a delightful story, Uncle Thomas! What a pity it is that it is not true.' This prompts Uncle Thomas to offer a 'true' anecdote about Sir George Davis. This structure shapes the book's tone—it is conversational, didactic, and responsive to imagined listeners. The frame allows the author to blend entertainment with moral instruction, but it also means the animal behaviors are filtered through a human-centric lens. The children's skepticism ('what a pity it is that it is not true') hints at a contemporary awareness of the line between fable and fact, which the book attempts to straddle.

Human-Animal Bonds as Evidence of Character

The excerpts consistently highlight animals that form attachments to specific humans. The lion in the Androcles story 'crouch submissively at his feet, fawn upon him as a faithful dog would do upon his master.' The lion in the Sir George Davis anecdote 'threw his paws upon his shoulders, licked his face, and ran about him.' These descriptions anthropomorphize the animals, presenting them as capable of loyalty and affection. The catalog subject 'Conduct of life' aligns with this moral framing: the stories model virtuous behavior (gratitude, gentleness) through animal examples. However, the book does not systematically explore instinct or animal behavior in a modern sense. Instead, it uses animals as mirrors for human virtues, a common trope in 19th-century children's literature.

Readers approaching this book through its catalog subjects should be aware that 'instinct' here is a loose label for a collection of moral anecdotes. The work is best understood as a period piece that uses animal stories to teach conduct, not as a natural history. Pay attention to the frame narrative and the children's reactions, which reveal the book's didactic purpose. The engravings by Thomas Landseer, mentioned on the title page, likely reinforce the visual appeal of these tales, though they are not included in the digital text.

That Bingley collection stayed with me—how those old animal stories kept slipping past “instinct” into something softer, like gratitude or the quiet trust between a creature and a person. It reminded me of another book I came across later, Stories of the Universe: Animal Life — Themes and Context, which carries that same gentle wonder without the moralizing. I found myself thinking about both long after.