258 THE AMERICAN BEAVER. 



rial, since it is one of degree, and not of kind. As 

 there is a gradation of its power among the individ- 

 uals of the human species, so there is undoubtedly a 

 similar gradation among the several species of the 

 vertebrate animals. 



^'Memory," says Sir William Hamilton, "is an im- 

 mediate knowledge of a present thought, involving an 

 absolute belief that this thought represents another 

 act oip knowledge that has been." As the mind is a 

 unit, the whole mind remembers, and not one of its 

 fractional parts. If the power to remember were re- 

 moved from the mental principle, it would become 

 powerless, and perhaps be overthrown. The past, in 

 such a case, would be utterly lost, the present vanish- 

 ing with every instant, the future inconceivable, and 

 the external world a blank. On the other hand, let 

 any created being possess, in addition to the senses, a 

 something capable of remembering, and it has more 

 than the power to remember; it has, with it, a capa- 

 city to know, to understand, and to reason. That 

 something is the mental principle. Every other infer- 

 ence is excluded. Knowing the qualities of this prin- 

 ciple as it exists in the human species, and conscious 

 of its unique and extraordinary character, when we 

 find the mutes in possession of a something w^hich dis- 

 plays the same qualities, the philosophical axiom at 

 once suggests itself, namely, "that a plurality of prin- 

 ciples is not to be assumed, when the phenomena can 

 possibly be explained by one." 



IV. Reason or Judgment. The mutes perceive ex- 

 ternal objects in the same manner that we do. After 

 admitting that no distinction can be found between 

 their manner and our own of acquiring a knowledge 



