64 ESSAY ON CLASSIFICATION. Pakt I. 



ancestors, if these beings had not in themselves the faculty of sustaining their char- 

 acter, in spite of these agents ? Why, again, should animals and plants at once begin 

 to decompose under the very influence of all those agents which have been subservi- 

 ent to the maintenance of their life, as soon as life ceases, if life is limited or deter- 

 mined by them? 



There exist between individuals of the same species relations far more comphcated 

 than those already alluded to, which go still further to disprove any possibility of 

 causal dependence of organized beings upon physical agents. The relations upon 

 which the maintenance of species is based, throughout the animal kingdom, in the 

 universal antagonism of sex, and the infinite diversity of these connections in difler- 

 ent types, have really nothing to do with external conditions of existence ; they 

 indicate only relations of individuals to individuals, beyond their connections with the 

 material world in which tliey live. How, then, could these relations be the result of 

 physical causes, when physical agents are known to have a specific sphere of action, 

 in no way bearing upon tliis sphere of phenomena ? 



For the most part, the relations of individuals to individuals are unquestionably 

 of an organic nature, and, as such have to be viewed in the same light as any other 

 structural feature ; but there is much, also, in these connections that partakes of a 

 psychological character, taking this expression in the widest sense of the word. 



When animals fight with one another, when they associate for a common purpose, 

 when they warn one another in danger, when they come to the rescue of one 

 another, when they display pain or joy, they manifest impulses of the same kind as 

 are considered among the moral attributes of man. The range of their passions is 

 even as extensive as that of the human mind, and I am at a loss to perceive a 

 difference of kind between them, however much they may differ in degree and in 

 the manner in which they are expressed. The gradations of the moral fixculties 

 among the higher animals and man are, moreover, so imperceptible, that to deny to 

 the first a certain sense of responsibility and consciousness, would certainly be an 

 exaggeration of the difference between animals and man. There exists, besides, as 

 much individuahty, within their respective capabilities, among animals as among men, 

 as every sportsman, or every keeper of menageries, or every farmer and shepherd 

 can testify who has had a large experience with wild, or tamed, or domesticated 

 animals.^ 



This argues strongly in favor of the existence in every animal of an immaterial 



^ See J. E. Eidinger's various works illustra- naturelle des Mammiferes, Paris, 1820-35, 3 vols, 



tive of Game Animals, which have appeared under fol. — Lenz, (II. 0.,) Gemeinuiitzige Naturgeschiehte, 



different titles, in Augsburg, from 1729 to 1778.— Gotha, 183.3,4 vols. 8vo. — Binglet, (W.,) Animal 



Geoffeoy St. HiLAUtE, et Cuviek, (Fe.,) Histoire Biography, London, 1803, 3 vols. 8vo. 



