the Irue nulure of Instiuct. II 



It becomes necessary thpn to establish a test whereby the 

 operation of the moral, intellectual, and scientific powers here 

 alluded to, may be ascertained ; and whereby the line of demar'^ 

 cation may be distinctly drawn between man and brute. This 

 test, I conceive, is included in the following propositions ; yiz. 

 1st, TlicU moral qualities do not become objective in the minds of 

 brutes / or^ that the moral actions which they perform are not r«- 

 flected upon or contrived by them as such ; thus that they possesi 

 no moral consciousness^ and consequently that no moral design 

 can be attributed to them ; and therefore that so much of moral 

 design as appears conspicuous in their actions must be the effect 

 %>f moral poic*rs or energies acting upon them in a region of 

 their minds above the sphere of their proper consciousness. 9nd, 

 That intellectual and scientific qualities do not become objective 

 in the minds of brutes ; or^ that the intellectual and scientijic 

 actions which they perform^ are not refected upon or contrived 

 by them as such ; thus that they possess no intellectual or scientifti 

 consciousness, and consequently that no intellectual or scientific 

 design can be attributed to them : and therefore that so much of. 

 intellectual or scientific design as appears conspicuous in theit^ 

 actions, must be the effect oj intellectual and scientific powers or 

 energies, acting upon them in a region of their minds above the 

 sphere of their proper consciousness. 



Admiring and respecting as I do the endeavours of all who ar^ 

 engaged in the promotion of philosophic enquiries, I cannot but' 

 think, that in the particular subject before us, too much has been 

 done to confound the natures of man and brute, and to separate 

 both from the Fountain of their existence. Man is wluit he is, and 

 derives his superiority over the brute creation, from the circum- 

 stance that all things whatever become morally and scientifically 

 objective to him ; and the brute is what he is, and derives his' 

 inferiority, from the total absence of this distinguished and en- 

 nobling f.n ully. It is true that many specious arguments may be 

 and have been advanced to prove that the biutes participate in 

 human rationality, in kind, if not in degree ; but the ends which 

 their ualurcs iiie evidently destined to fulfil, would be, one might 



