59 



Dr. Hume then read a paper on the Intellectuality i of the 

 Lower Animals. The following is partly an extract, and partly 

 an abstract : — 



" That multitudes of the inferior animals actually do reason, 

 on very many occasions, (by which I mean draiv plain infer- 

 ences, and perform mental and bodily acts ivhich no pkilosop/iical 

 definition of instinct can explain, J is a position so exten- 

 sively admitted by scientific men, that I am almost afraid to 

 announce it in a philosophical society. To tliinking men, 

 who have been in the habit of inquiring into the causes of 

 things, or whose own observation in the field of natural 

 history has afforded frequent materials for rational inference, 

 the subject of this paper must appear little better than a stale 

 truism. Yet, so widely different are the vulgar impressions 

 entertained by the mass of mankind, that scarcely any doc- 

 trine would be received with stronger opposition in the world. 

 In fact, so absurd does our proposition appear to those who 

 are totally uninformed upon the subject, that the contrary 

 impression has become interwoven with the body of our 

 language. Hence, ' rational beings/ and the f irrational 

 animals/ are currently spoken of to denote respectively men 

 and the inferior creatures. Even with speakers and writers 

 who ought to know better, we frequently hear the expression — 

 ' men and animals' — as if men were not animals, or as if 

 animals were tilings possessing life only. I do not object to 

 either of these expressions (except on the ground of loose phra- 

 seology), provided it is understood only in a relative or com- 

 paratire sense ; but I beg most distinctly to pronounce either 

 of them as totally contrary to fact, if it be used in an absolute 

 and unqualified sense. 



" The true state of the question seems to be this : almost 

 all inquirers — whether mental philosophers, naturalists, or 

 physiologists — admit that there are many actions of the brute 

 creation so free from design, and at the same time so neces- 

 sary for the welfare of the creatures and the propagation of 



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