that Aristotle thought animals have motions from springs, like those of automata, is very evident from his work on animals. That he gave them sensation and passions, but denied them the faculties of meditation, reflection, and deliberation, is equally evident. a Vigneul de Marville speaks of another opinion, still more inconsistent; embracing the idea, that there exist certain elementary spirits, whose office in the creation is to put in motion all the machines of beasts, and those, too, not only in harmony with external circumstances, but according to certain fixed rules of mechanics. It is exceedingly curious, that two of the most celebrated writers on man (La Bruyère and. Des Cartes), should make the assertion, that animals consist of nothing but matter. Rorarius was of a different opinion, as may be seen in his rare, but delightful work, Quod Animalia bruta ratione utantur melius homine. Porphyry also says, that animals have not only reason, but the faculty of making themselves understood; and that the cause why men are superior to them arises merely from the circumstance of their reasoning faculties being of a more refined order: and this he infers from the certainty which exists, in their being able to impart to each other. Sextus Empiricus also believed, that there is no animated being whatever, but enjoys the faculty of knowledge and understanding; and it is, assuredly, very remarkable, that the nearer an animal approaches to man, the fewer are the species; and it is equally wonderful, that all animals are formed after one general model of organization. The celebrated Jew, Maimonides, gives them a species of free-will; and extends to them the Mahometane doctrine, a Mélanges d'Histoire et Littérature, i. 100. e Mahomet inculcated the doctrine, that, at the last day, the unarmed cattle will take vengeance on the horned, till entire satisfaction shall be given to the injured. VOL. II. a that beasts, in a future state, will have rewards as well as men, for what they suffer in this. Indeed, there have not been wanting some to imagine, that the actions of beasts may be ascribed to an external reason, which is more excellent than the internal one of man. Even Grotius gives into this idea at least, such a construction may be given to one or two of his arguments. b Lactantius insists, that, except in religion, beasts imitate man in all things, and partake of his privileges. "They have souls, too," says he, "though those souls are not immortal, as ours are." There have not been wanting some, however, to insist, that animals have not only a distinct knowledge of men, whom they see; but of God, whom they cannot see: and of this opinion was Xenocrates of Carthage. It is probable, that while some animated beings have instincts only; some may have instincts and faculties, so mixed, that it is not only difficult, but impossible, to show the line between them while others may have intellectual faculties, susceptible of cultivation to a certain extent, in the same manner that man has; each having a circle, the boundaries of which it is impossible for any of them to overpass. It is probable, too, that if we are answerable for our conduct to man, we are also answerable to animals; and that, if the souls of men perish not, the souls of animals perish not. Marlowe says All beasts are happy; for when they die How know we that? Why should we presume to set bounds to the justice, and the benevolence of the Creator? The greatest argument for the futurity of man arises out of the inconceivable injuries he suffers here. Do not animals a Essais Nouveaux de Morale, 30. 32. b De Jure Belli et Pacis, Proleg. 7. c Vid. Strom. v. d Clemens Alexand., De Optificio Dei, c. 2. Also, De Ira Dei, c. 7. Wallis seems inclined to the opinion, that the soul of an animal is of the figure and extent of the body it informs.-Vid. De Anima Brutorum, c. 2. suffer injuries too? not only daily, but hourly a. The Creator is, assuredly, the never-forsaking parent not of man only, but of all his creatures. Let me intreat you, then, my dear Lelius, to continue to instruct your children, to extend their sympathies to the animal creation, even so far as to regard each member of it as entitled to be hailed almost as a friend and a brother. MAN THE GREATEST OF MIRACLES. THOUGH time, power, motion, and space, are the most awful subjects, that can engage the meditative faculties of man ; yet, being the most abstruse, it were wise to let them engage but little of our time: a few observations in respect to the relative connexions of men with the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms, are, however, imperative. In respect to the first, it may be sufficient to observe, that minerals are the media, whence civilised life derives all its varieties and comforts; and that vegetables not only enable man to exist, but that they constitute the very scope and basis of his form. The relation, that man bears to animals, has already been noticed in various passages of our work. The ourang outang resembles him in figure and form; it has the external organs of speech, but not the faculty of availing itself of their use. Parrots, ravens, and starlings, however, can imitate his voice; though they know nothing of the design and extent of its meaning. No machine has yet been discovered, that can imitate the voice at all the stop of the organ, called the human voice, having no resemblance to speech; though it bears a distant analogy with the voice in singing. Even the flute is powerless. The eye, the ear, and the voice, are the great master-pieces a There is a curious coincidence in regard to the happiness and misery of animals and man: one horse, for instance, leads a life of hunger, labour, and disease; another that of comfort, hilarity, and enjoyment. One man' -The argument may be easily anticipated. of Nature. The construction of the eye and ear is so beautiful, and their mechanism so admirably adapted to the offices they have to perform, that they alone are sufficient to indicate the hand of an all-powerful Being. The rays of light imprint on the optic nerve, not only in all their variety of form and colour, but in one instant of time, a vast assemblage of external objects. The ear is not more to be admired for its use, than for the exquisite beauty of its mechanism; and that the loss of the power of exercising its functions is more sensibly felt, than the loss of those appertaining to sight, is proved by the circumstance of blind persons being, for the most part, far more cheerful than deaf ones. The eye and the ear are allied more intimately to the soul, than any of the other organs; since they are the chief media by which we receive: and until we receive we cannot communicate. They are, therefore, more important than the organs of speech and yet speech has been, and may well be called, the greatest miracle of Nature. To be capable of eliciting 2,400 different tones is, indeed, a wonderful faculty: but to possess that of expressing every feeling, and of conveying every mental impression to the mind of others, is a miracle; the association of which is lost in the contemplation of eternal excellence. No bee has ever introduced a single improvement in the construction of its cell; no beaver in the style of its architecture; and no bird in the formation of its nest. They respectively arrive at perfection by intuition. Man could form a cell as geometrically as a bee; but he can collect neither the honey nor the wax. He surpasses the beaver; and can collect the materials for the nest of a bird but the utmost effort of his art will not enable him to put it together. He can neither make the leaf of a tree, nor the petal of a flower; nor can he, when he finds them already formed to his hand, inclose the one in a calyx, or fold the other in a bud. Beasts are covered with hair, with wool, and with fur; birds with feathers; fishes with scales; and insects with a skin so hard, that it not only supplies their want of bones, but preserves their warmth. Of these the coverings of birds and fishes are the most perfect. There is a species of crab, which, as we have observed before, clothes itself in the discarded shell of a lobster; but man is the only animal, that can regularly form a covering for itself. He is the only animal, also, to whom Nature has intrusted the element of fire; an agent, which is the most wonderful of the elements; and which still baffles, by its opposite effects, the researches of philosophy. Whether we consider man as one complete bodily machine, or in his relative parts of head, arms, hands, fingers, thighs, legs, and feet; bones, ligaments, and membranes; veins, arteries, glands, muscles, tendons, and nerves; the heart, the blood, the stomach, and the mechanism, by which all those members are connected, and the nice expedients, employed to convert the food into chyle, to blend it with the blood, and to diffuse it through the entire system; it may truly be said, that man presents to the astonished imagination, an attesting wonder! But if we extend the contemplation to his sensations in youth, his reason in age, and his capacities in every stage of manhood, the visible signs, by which speech is embodied, and by which sounds are realised, are found to be inadequate of media, by which to express the excellence of the wonderful machine. In fact, man needs not blush to be proud; since he is capable of expressing all his wants and all his ideas by the medium of four and twenty characters; of calculating numbers to comparative infinity with only nine numerical figures; and with only seven separate notes, to elicit, on musical instruments, almost innumerable combinations of sound. But the universe is replete with miracles: from the first source of caloric to the simple grain of sand, which contains animals, to which it is a world, as large as the whole circum |