Address to the British Association 207 



follow from the admission of the radical distinctness of human 

 reason seems evident from the views of Aristotle. He cer- 

 tainly was free from theological prejudices or predispositions, 

 and yet to his clear intellect the difference between the 

 merely sentient and the rational natures was an evident differ- 

 ence, and the facts which are open to our observation are 

 the same as those which presented themselves to his. 



To enter on this inquiry with any fair prospect of success, 

 it is not only necessary to guard against such temptations 

 as these, but it is also necessary to be provided with a cer- 

 tain amount of knowledge of a special kind ; namely, with a 

 clear knowledge of what our o^vn intellectual powers are. 

 I conceive that, great as is the danger of exaggeration and 

 false inference as to the faculties of animals, the danger of 

 misapprehending and underrating our own powers is far 

 greater. 



Buftbn held very decided views as to the distinctness of 

 the mind of man from the so-called minds of animals. But 

 an ingenious and gifted writer,^ who has recently done good 

 service in supporting Buffon's claims to greater consideration 

 than he commonly receives, has, nevertheless, done him 

 what I believe to be strange injustice in attributing to his 

 great work an ironical character, and this in spite of Buffon's 

 own protest ^ against irony in such a work as his. I cannot 

 venture to take up your time with controversy on this sub- 

 ject ; but, apart from Buffon's protest against ' equivoque,' it 

 is incredible to me that he should have carried on a sustained 

 irony through so voluminous a work — thus making its whole 

 teaching absolutely mendacious. One remark of Buffon's,. 

 which has been strangely misinterpreted by this writer, I 

 shall have occasion to notice directly; but I think it may 

 suffice to clear Buffon's character from the aspersion of his 



1 Mr. Samuel Butler. See his Evolution, Old and New : Hardwicke & 

 Bogue, 1879. 2 Qp, cit., tome i. p. 25. 



