402 Some Speculations on the Analogy hetween 



splay as much sensibility and real feeling as half our species 

 would have done at the loss of such a friend ? Was it 

 chained to the spot by the mechanism of a clock-work 

 principle ? No, no : let us acknowledge that other animals 

 are sometimes as intelligent as ourselves ; — let us adore the 

 Creator of the universe, who in giving to brutes an intel- 

 lectual principle capable of memory, volition, and possess- 

 ing in a limiled degree the faculty of reasoning, has not 

 only provided for their immediate wants, but graciously 

 multiplied their means of happiness. It is natural to sup- 

 pose that the lower animals enjoy from their cogitations a 

 very high degree of pleasure. A beast, a bird of prey, 

 reposing in the solitary gloom of a deep forest, when not 

 actually sleeping, enjoy a positive happiness, from the re- 

 collection of their last meal ; from the anticipation of an- 

 other ; or in forming vague plans for surprising their next 

 prey, when hunger shall impel them to pursue it. A little 

 bird conBned in a cage, and supplied with a sufficiency of 

 food, is happy either in motion, or when sitting oil its 

 perch; it observes the actions of others, or gives itself up to 

 a succession of confused ideas, of which perhaps it is scarcely 

 sensible, and which leave not a trace behind. If we wHl 

 not allow that brutes ever think ; if we suppose them inca- 



f table of a single idea, however simple ; it must certainly fol- 

 ow, that they are mere automatons, moved by mechanism: 

 but if, as appears evident, they are capable of thought, it i< 

 equally clear that they must have a soul ; for thought is 

 an act of the mind, and mind (though as a substantive it 

 is a word which sometimes expresses a power or faculty of 

 the soul) in its largest sense is synonymous with soul. 



Let it not be thought that I wish to degrade men to the 

 rank of yahoos, and insinuate that they are inferior beings 

 to horses. Many people, I know, will think it almost im- 

 pious to suppose a dog to have a soul, because, they will 

 say, the human soul, though now degraded by sin, wa» 

 originally as much an emanation from the Creator, as a 

 ray of light is an emanation from the sun ; and the word 

 itself implies an immortal spirit. Rut these are objections 

 which appear to be supported neither by reason nor com- 

 mon sense. Man in his most perfect slate was " lower thaa 

 the angels ;" the highest of archangels v/e must suppose 

 infinitely below the Deity, as the lowest of the angels is be- 

 low thdt archangel. Rays of light, proceeding from the- 

 «un, may be more or less imperfect and obscure by passing 

 through bodies of a different density ; light, as well as air, 

 is capable of deterioration ; but the Almighty is as perfect 



in. 



