BRUT E. 



17 



ours, but even that they possess additional sense*, 



iu.^ thnn to I'.L.i-owr ciTtain qualities of alimen- 



tuy lubiUncet, and certain chan^v; in the state of 

 the atmosphere, which arc not discernible by human 

 organs. 



But though, in a state of nature, all the actions of 

 brute animals may, in general, be referred to instinc- 

 tive impulse and sensual desire, they are evidently ca- 

 pable of profiting by experience, and of being mould- 

 ed by tuition, so as to exercise powers which they 

 never acquire in any degree of proficiency, till they 

 become the subjects of instruction. Whether we 

 consider them as learning by their own observation, 

 or as being trained by discipline, we must allow that 

 they are possessed of certain faculties analogous to 

 those powers which render man susceptible of educa- 

 tion. They could not be taught any of those feats 

 which are sometimes exhibited, unless they retained 

 in the memory the impressions made on their senses, 

 and unless they were actuated by motives to exercise 

 \-olition, or to submit to authority. Innnmerable in- 

 stances might be produced, of the tenacity with 

 which they preserve trains of ideas, and of the facili- 

 ty and accuracy with which they can retrace a series 

 x>f objects, even in an inverted order j as when a dog 

 or a horse returns by a way along which he has pas- 

 sed only once, and at a distance of time which pre- 

 cludes the supposition of his being guided by the 

 smell. A horse will, at the distane of many years, 

 remember the precise spot where he has been fright-, 

 ened, though no vestige of the terrific object should 

 remain. We have no certain means of determining 

 how far Aristotle's assertion is correct, that brutes 

 arc destitute of the power of reminiscence, or the vo- 

 luntary effort to recover what has escaped the recol- 

 lection. Dr Reid's opinion, that they cannot mea- 

 sure time as men do, by days, months, or years, and 

 that they have no distinct knowledge of the interval 

 between things which they remember, must be recei- 

 ved with some limitation. In some pastoral districts 

 of this country, where the dogs are accustomed to 

 follow their owners to church, it is a well attested 

 fact, that some dogs have formed the habit of going 

 every Sunday, even when divine service was not per- 

 formed, and when, from the uniformity of the occu- 

 pations going on in such scenes every day of the 

 week, it is difficult to perceive what particular asso- 

 ciation could have influenced them, unless they had 

 acquired the capacity of numbering the days of the 

 week. But if brutes do possess this faculty, it is pro- 

 bably in a very imperfect degree ; and we would 

 require stronger testimony than that of Montaigne, 

 to induce us to credit the story of the arithmetical 

 oxen at Susa, every one of which, being in the daily 

 practice of turning an hundred rounds of a wheel 

 for drawing water, was so accustomed to this num- 

 ber, that no force could prevail on him to proceed be- 

 yond it. The thing will not, however, appear alto- 

 gether inconceivable to those who have had opportu- 

 nities of perceiving how well the most unwieldy ani- 

 mals, such as elephants, camels, and bears, may be 

 taught to dance, and how many notes of a tui.e some 

 birds can learn in a very short time ; facts which 

 render it probable, that these creatures may, to a cer- 



\OL. v. PAUT I. 



tain extent, form mcaiurei of duration, and acquire Bruce, 

 the ideas, of number. ^^ v -^ 1 



It is commonly supposed that brute are void of 

 imagination. How then arc we to account for thote 

 appearances during their kleep which teem to indicate 

 dreaming ? 



Qulppc riJelU eqvotfortu, ettm membra jacciunt 

 In s'lmnit, tudart t avten, tpirareque *eepc t 

 Kt quant Jc palnn tummti* rontcttdere lirn, 

 Venantumquc canet in nolti latpr ijuiete 

 Jactant crvra ; tame* nbito, vornquc repent e 

 Mitlunt, et crebrat reducunt naribut aura*, 

 Ut vestigia n teneant inicntaj'eraium, r. 



LUCR. 1. h. 



The dreams of these animals, however, may be of 

 such a kind, as not necessarily to impl^the exer- 

 cise of imagination ; and probably they may be ex- 

 cited by some of the simpler processes of the associa- 

 tion of ideas. They at least presuppose a faculty of 

 conception. 



Whether any of the inferior tribes of animals are ' 

 capable of reasoning or not, has long been a subject 

 of dispute. Most of the ancients admitted that the 

 brutes possess this power; and it has sometimes been 

 said, that the most familiar facts with regard to their 

 docility, are specimens of ratiocination, or of deducing 

 conclusions from the comparison of different idea*. 

 When, for instance, a dog is taught to dance or tum- 

 ble, he must be allured to obedience, and chastised for 

 inattention. His choice, therefore, is supposed to be 

 determined by such considerations as these : " If I 

 obey, I shall be caressed and fed ; if I disobey, I 

 shall be beaten and starved. It is, therefore, better 

 for me to obey." It is a simpler and more satisfac- 

 tory account of this matter, to say, that obedience ic 

 associated with an idea of pleasure, and that neglect, 

 or disobedience, is inseparably combined with the idea 

 of pain ; or, in other words, that hope and fear unite 

 their influence with such force as to supersede the ne- 

 cessity of logical deduction. But there is certainly a 

 degree of reason displayed by some of the more saga- 

 cious brutes, in pursuing a series of means, with a 

 view to attain some desirable end, and in varying the 

 means employed, according to circumstances. None 

 of them, however, give any unambiguous proofs of a 

 capacity to investigate truth by a procedure similar 

 to the reasoning, or induction, by which the human 

 mind presses forward to discovery. Mr Locke ascribe* 

 this defect to their inability of " abstracting or ma- 

 king general ideas." They can reason only in par- 

 ticular ideas, (according to his opinion,) and they 

 have no use of any general signs for expressing uni- 

 versal ideas ; nor is this owing to the inaptitude of 

 their organs for framing articulate sounds. Many of 

 them can be taught to utter such sounds, but never 

 to apply words with intelligence ; and in this inca- 

 pacity of generalising and of communicating their 

 thoughts by artificial signs, Mr Locke conceives the 

 spetitic discrimination between them and the human 

 race to consist. 



Whatever disadvantages appear to be involved in 

 the want or imperfection of the rational nature, are 

 abundantly compensated by the substitution of in- 



