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MENTAL CONSTITUTION OF ANIMALS. 



No clear ideas have as yet been entertained by the generality 

 of even educated men, with regard to the mental constitution 

 of animals. The very nature of this constitution is not as yet 

 generally known or held as ascertained. There is, indeed, a 

 notion of old standing, that the mind is in some way connected 

 with the brain ; but the metaphysicians insist that it is, in 

 reality, known only by its acts or effects, and they accordingly 

 present the subject in a form which is unlike any other kind 

 of science, for it does not so much as pretend to have a basis 

 in nature. There is a general disinclination to regard mind in 

 connexion with organization, from a fear that this must inter- 

 fere with the cherished doctrine of the spirit of man, and lower 

 him to the level of the brutes. A distinction is therefore 

 drawn between our mental manifestations and those of the 

 lower animals, the latter being comprehended under the term 

 instinct, while ours are collectively described as mind, mind 

 being again a received synonyme with soul, the immortal part 

 of man. There is here a strange system of confusion and 

 error, which it is most imprudent to regard as essential to 

 religion, since candid investigations of nature tend to show its 

 untenableness. There is, in reality, nothing to prevent our 

 regarding man as being specially, in accordance with his posi- 

 tion as the head or chief of all animals, endowed with an 

 immortal spirit, at the same time that his ordinary mental 

 manifestations are looked upon as simple phenomena resulting 

 from organization, those of the lower animals being phenomena 

 absolutely the same in character, though developed within 

 narrower limits. 1 



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1 " Is not God the first cause of matter as well as of mind ? Do not 

 the first attributes of matter lie as inscrutable in the bosom of God of 

 its first author as those of mind ? Has not even matter confessedly 

 received from God the power of experiencing, in consequence of impres- 

 sions from the earlier modifications of matter, certain consciousnesses 



