30 INTRODUCTION. 



what are called signs ; their assemblage is a language. When the language is com- 

 posed of images that relate to the sense of hearing or sound, it is termed speech. 

 When its images relate to that of sight, they are called hieroglyphics. Writing 

 is a suite of images that relate to the sense of sight, by which we represent 

 elementary sounds ; and, in combining them, all the images relative to the sense of 

 hearing of which speech is composed : it is, therefore, only a mediate representation 

 of ideas. 



This faculty of representing general ideas by particular signs or images associated 

 with them, enables us to retain distinctly in the memory, and to recall without con- 

 fusion, an immense number, and furnishes to the reasoning faculty and the imagina- 

 tion innumerable materials, and to individuals the means of communication, which 

 cause the whole species to participate in the experience of each individual ; so that no 

 bounds seem to be placed to the acquisition of knowledge : this is the distinctive 

 character of human intelligence.* 



The most perfect animals are infinitely below man in their intellectual faculties ; but 

 it is, nevertheless, certain that their intelligence performs operations of the same kind. 

 They move in consequence of sensations received, are susceptible of durable affections, 

 and acquire by experience a certain knowledge of things, by which they are governed in- 

 dependently of actual pain and pleasure, and by the simple foresight of consequences.f 

 When domesticated, they feel their subordination, know that the being who punishes 

 them may refrain from doing so if he will, and when sensible of having done wrong, or 

 behold him angrv, they assume a suppliant air. In the society of man they become 

 either corrupted or improved, and are susceptible of emulation and jealousy : they 

 have among themselves a natural language, which, it is true, expresses only 

 their momentary sensations ; but man teaches them to understand another, much 

 more complicated, by which he makes known to them his will, and causes them to 

 execute it. 



In short, we perceive in the higher animals a certain degree of reason, with all its 

 consequences, good and bad, and which appears to be about the same as that of chil- 

 dren before they have learned to speak. In proportion as we descend to the animals 

 more removed from man, these faculties become enfeebled ; and, in the lowest classes, 

 we find them reduced to signs, at times equivocal only, of sensibility, that is to say, 

 to a few slight movements to escape from pain. Between these two extremes, the 

 degrees are endless. 



In a great number of animals, however, there exists a different faculty of intelli- 

 gence, which is named instinct. This prompts them to certain actions necessary to the 

 preservation of the species, but often altogether foreign to the apparent wants of 

 individuals ; frequently, also, very complicated, and which, to be ascribed to intelligence, 

 would suppose a foresight and knowledge in the species that execute them infinitely 

 superior to what can be admitted. These actions, the result of instinct, are not the 

 effect of imitation, for the individuals that perform them have often never seen them 

 performed by others : they are not proportioned to the ordinary intelligence, but 

 become more singular, more wise, more disinterested, in proportion as the animals 

 belong to less elevated classes, and are, in all the rest of their actions, more dull and 



* Liniiccus defined the human being to be a" self-knowing animal ;" . but it is doubtful whether any of them can mentally trace remote 

 which is a bold assumption, taken either way. — Ed. causes, amid the complication of phenomena. It is with man in his 



t That is to say, they obviously remark coincidences and sequences ; | least civilized state that they should be compared, — Ed, 



