482 On the Want of Speech in irrational Animals, 



name, and be taught to go or come at the command of his 

 master ? a horse to proceed forwards or turn backwards, to 

 turn to the right or left, at a single word of his driver ? 



" Want of understanding " must mean want of reason. 

 It has been asserted, and repeated, thousands of times, that 

 reason is the exclusive prerogative of man ; that man is the 

 only rational creature. But how has this ever been proved ? 

 Assuredly not by facts. I have no inclination to discuss the 

 question, which has already been treated on at great length, 

 and with much candour and ability, in Griffiths's edition of 

 Cuvier's Animal Kingdom, iii. 360. et seq. ; and I shall merely 

 instance one quality, which, wheresoever it is found, whether 

 in a man or a goose, appears to me to be undeniably demon- 

 strative of the existence of the reasoning principle, and that 

 is, the capability of receiving instruction, or of forming cer- 

 tain conclusions from previous experience. We recognise 

 this quality, in a greater or less degree, throughout the 

 higher orders of animals ; and, view it as we will, we can 

 conclude it to be the effect of nothing else than reason : and 

 it is utterly inconsistent with the acknowledged properties of 

 instinct. It is a combined result of memory and judgment ; 

 faculties which no one has ever said are not essentially rational, 

 and which are principally effective in rendering the human 

 intellect what it actually is. In short, we cannot deny to 

 animals the possession of that mysterious something which 

 we call mind ; of a mind similar to ours in kind, although 

 infinitely inferior to ours in degree. 



But to leave this digression, and attempt a direct reply to 

 the question at the head of this article. For this purpose, I 

 cannot do better than quote the observations of Mr. Lawrence 

 (in his Lectures on Physiology, Zoology, and the Vatural His- 

 tory of Man) on the subject : — " Man," says he, " exhibits, 

 by external signs, what passes within him; he communicates 

 his sentiments by words : and this sign is universal. The 

 savage and the civilised man have the same power of utter- 

 ance : both speak, naturally, and are equally understood. It 

 is not owing, as some have imagined, to any defect in their 

 organs that animals are denied the faculty of speech. The 

 tongue of a monkey is as perfect as that of a man ; yet mon- 

 keys cannot speak. Several animals may be taught to pro- 

 nounce words, and even to repeat sentences ; which proves 

 clearly that the want of speech is not owing to any defect in 

 their organs. But to make them conceive the ideas which 

 these words express is beyond the power of art : they arti- 

 culate and repeat like an echo or machine. Language implies 

 a train of thinking ; and, for this reason, brute animals are 



