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The Scottish Naturalist. 



have reason, but use it better than man. Some might be in- 

 clined to think that this book was no mean evidence of the 

 position which it advocated, though in a somewhat different 

 way than its author intended. The old essayist, Montaigne, 

 expresses his fancies on the subject characteristically thus : — 

 " Presumption is our natural and original infirmity. The most 

 wretched and frail of all creatures is man, and yet withal the 

 proudest. He sees and feels himself lodged here in the dirt 

 and nastiness of the world; yet, in his imagination he soars 

 above the moon, and casts the sky under his feet. By the 

 vanity of this same imagination he makes himself equal with 

 God, withdraws and separates himself from the crowd of other 

 creatures, carves for the animals his brethren and com- 

 panions, and distributes such a portion of faculty and force to 

 them as he sees fit. How does he know, by the strength of 

 his understanding, the internal and secret motives of the 

 animals ? From what comparison betwixt them and us does he 

 infer them to be so stupid as he thinks them ? When I play 

 with my cat, who knows whether puss is not more diverted with 

 me than I am with puss ? The defect which hinders the com- 

 munion between us and them, why is it not as bad for us as for 

 them ? It is yet to determine where the fault is that we do not 

 understand them any more than they do us. For this very reason 

 they may reckon us beasts as we do them" (Essays, 2 p., 157- 

 8). But the most curious of all opinions respecting the under- 

 standing of beasts is that advanced by Pere Bongeant, a Jesuit, 

 in a work entitled " Philosophical Amusements on the Language 

 of Beasts." In this book he contends " that each animal is in- 

 habited by a separate and distinct devil ; that not only this was 

 the case with respect to cats, which have long been known to 

 be very favourite residences of familiar spirits, but that a peculiar 

 devil swam with every turbot, grazed with every ox, soared with 

 every lark, dived with every duck, and was roasted with every 

 chicken" (S. Smith, 239-40). Borri, an Italian " Chymist, 

 Empiric, and Heretic," as Bayle calls him, held also that the 

 souls of animals were an emanation of the evil angels. It must 

 have been out of sheer despair over an impracticable subject, 

 that it was thus handed over to the devil. If this disposal of 

 their case could be considered injurious or insulting, the animals 

 have had their revenge, and that at the hands of no meaner 

 advocates than the great Grotius, the greater Sir I. Newton, 

 and Lord Brougham. These three, with lesser satellites, have 



