The Scottish Naturalist. 91 



only in the degree of its powers. It may be held, second, that 

 animals have a soul specifically different from the human — say 

 a soul sensitive only, and not rational. Or, third, it may be held 

 that animals have no soul at all, that their actions are the result 

 of their organisation — that, in short, they are machines. These 

 three exhaust the possible views that are throughout distinct. 



The first — the rational soul view, was the first in history. 

 And we shall find that a modification of it through an admix- 

 ture of the third, or machine view, is also the last, being the 

 prevailing one at present. The Pythagoreans held this view. 

 It was involved in their system of transmigration of souls. 

 Many pre-Socratic philosophers, not of their school, also held 

 it. The Platonists as a body did the same. 



The second view was represented by the Aristotelians. They 

 held the animal soul to be sensitive, not rational, and, therefore, 

 specifically different from the human. The Cynics and Stoics in- 

 clined to this side. And the schoolmen felt the Aristotelian influ- 

 ence here as in other things. 



The third — the automaton view — seems to have originated 

 with a Spanish physician, Gomez Pereira, about the middle of the 

 sixteenth century, half a century before Descartes was born. 

 But it was the French philosopher who reasoned it out, and left 

 it as a dogmatic legacy to the new school of philosophy of which 

 he was the master. This view easily held its own against the 

 Aristotelian. The Aristotelians, in defending their position 

 against the Platonists, urged that rationality was only an appear- 

 ance on the part of animals. In reality, tliey had a sensitive soul 

 only. Yes, said the Cartesians, that is true as against the Plato- 

 nists ; but we have the same right to urge against you — the Aris- 

 totelians — that sensitiveness in animals is only an appearance. 

 In reality, they have no more sensation than reason. Both are 

 an appearance alike, and on like grounds. Animals are mere 

 machines. All their apparent manifestations of mind are of a 

 kind with those actions we perform without the help of our 

 minds at all, through the "disposition of the organs," and "the 

 flow of the animal spirits." Thus the rival sects waged the 

 war. The battle was hottest in the seventeenth century when 

 Cartesianism was fresh and prevalent ; and it. raged from one 

 end of Europe to the other. 



Meanwhile, the vagaries of individual opinion were many and 

 sufficiently wild. In hot anti-Cartesian zeal a papal nuncio, 

 called Rovavius, wrote a book to prove that animals not only 



