498 On the hitelledual Faculties of Brute Animals. 



take place, being fully aware that every honourable man, 

 upon becoming acquainted with the truth, will give " credit 

 where credit is due." 



I am, Sir, yours, &c. 

 Hermitage, Sozith Lamhetk, J. F. Stephens*^ 



July 29. 1831. 



Art. IV. On the Intellectual Faculties of Brute Animals, 

 By J. J. 



Sir, 

 It is an opinion very generally entertained, that man is the 

 only living being endowed with the faculty of reason ; and 

 that the intellectual operations of all brute animals are the 

 results of mere instinct. This doctrine has been current from 

 time immemorial, although the most learned and the most 

 knowing amongst the ancients and moderns, who have ex^- 

 amined it impartially, have been obliged to admit that it is 

 unsupported by a single fact ; and that it is altogether incon- 

 sistent with philosophy, and even, indeed, with common 

 sense. Mr. Locke, who by universal acquiescence is allowed 

 to be one of the most profound thinkers, and one of the 

 most generally correct in his positions and inferences, of any 

 that ever lived, conceded a degree of reason to brutes. " It 

 seems," says he, " as evident to me that some of them do in 

 certain instances reason, as that they have sense." The most 

 eminent philosophers and naturalists of the present day are 

 also unanimous in the same opinion. The testimony of that 

 prince of naturalists, Cuvier, will serve as an example. " Al- 

 though," he observes, " the most perfect of other animals 

 are infinitely below mankind in their intellectual faculties, it 

 is, nevertheless, certain that they perform intellectual oper- 

 ations similar to ours in ki?id, although not in degree" After 

 having amply illustrated, and proved incontrovertibly, the 

 truth of this proposition, he adds : — " In short, we perceive 

 in the superior animals a certain degree of reason, with the 

 consequences, both good and bad, resulting from the exercise 



* In your last Number (p. 460.) there is an addendum to Mr. Davis's at- 

 tack, from the pen of a cowardly assailant, whose anonymous remarks I shall 

 not condescend to reply to, until he has the manliness to avow himself; 

 which remarks, by the way, being unaccompanied by the writer's name, 

 according to your avowed sentiments, ought not to have been inserted. 



[When we feel, as in this case, perfect confidence both in the science and 

 honesty of a correspondent, we do not hesitate to publish his opinions, 

 though under an assumed name. What we have stated on the cover of 

 No, XXI. is perfectly consistent with this view of our duties. — Cond.] 



