18 



BRUT E. 



Brute* stincts adapted to the situation of every animal. This 

 " v *' vvise provision supplies the absence of reason, by ac- 

 commodating the constitution of all sentient creatures 

 to the laws of matter, and to the several destinations 

 assigned to the different tribes. Some instincts may 

 he described as universal, and as being common to 

 man and other animals, such as the actions of respira- 

 tion, suction, and swallowing. Others are peculiar 

 to each race of creatures. Unlike the processes of 

 reason, they operate with unvarying uniformity in all 

 the individuals of the species, and they attain their 

 ends with absolute infallibility. Plutarch and some 

 other writers have affirmed, that many of the arts 

 practised by human beings were originally suggested 

 by observations of the instinctive manufactures of 

 other animals. Mr Pope, borrowing this idea from 

 Pliny, has amplified and embellished it with the 

 charms of his inimitable muse, in the third Epistle of 

 the Essay on Man, (v. 169, seq.) 



See bim from Nature rising slow to Art ! 

 To copy Instinct then was Reason's part ; 

 Thus then to man the voice of Nature spake 

 " Go, from the creatures thy instructions take : 

 Learn from the birds what food the thickets yield ; 

 Learn from the beasts the physic of the field ; 

 Thy arts of building from the bee receive ; 

 Learn of the mole to plow, the worm to weave ; 

 Learn of the little nautilus to sail, 

 Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale.. 

 Here too all forms of social union find, 

 And hence let Reason, late, instruct mankind. 

 Here subterranean works and cities see : 

 There towns aerial on the waving tree." &c. 



We are far from subscribing to this fanciful opi- 

 nion, which ascribes the origin of the arts to the imi- 

 tation of blind instincts ; but we must admit, that 

 mankind, in the ruder states of society, have in ge- 

 neral attended with great respect to the operations 

 of the brute creation, and have imagined that they 

 were indebted to them for many essential advantages. 

 It appears to have been from a conviction of the su- 

 perior sagacity of some of these creatures, that the art 

 of augury took its rise ; and many of the examples 

 of brutal intelligence recorded by Cicero, in his 2d 

 Book De Nat. Deorum, &c., appeared to have been 

 noted chiefly as arguments for the practice of divina- 

 tion. Hence, too, as was remarked by one of the 

 ancients, " Bdluae a Barbaris propter beneficium con' 

 secrata." Hence the absurdities of the Egyptian 

 superstition, in deifying bulls and cats, crocodiles and 

 serpents : 



i i CrocodHon adorai 

 Pars A/EC, ilia pavet saturam serpentibus Ibiti ; 

 JSffigies sacri hie nitet aurea Cercopitheci, 

 Dimidio magictB resonant ubi Memnone chorda, 

 Illic ctsruleos, hie piscemfluminis, itlic 

 Ofpida iota canem venerantur, nemp Dianam. 



Juv. Sat. 15. 



We may remark, farther, concerning the instincts 

 of the inferior animals, that one of the leading distinc- 

 tions between man and them, consists in his capacity 

 of learning lessons, not only from the experience of 

 his own species, but from attending to the economy 

 of other tribes ; whereas these creatures appear to 



gain no advantages from their observation of the la- Jkute. 

 hours of man, or from considering the ways of any ^ v- 

 ether creature. 



It would appear, also, that though the generality 

 of animals are capable of being taught several things 

 in addition to those which instinct prompts them to 

 perform, none of them ever improves upon the native 

 instincts peculiar to the species ; and whatever diver- 

 sity of ability they may exhibit in other respects, none 

 of them is more accomplished than the rest, in the 

 practices which Nature has taught his race. It is 

 manifest, likewise, that the proficiency which any in- 

 dividual of a species may have attained by instruction 

 is of no avail to his posterity. He has no means of 

 recording his experience, or of transmitting any of his 

 acquisitions to future generations. The only signs 

 which he knows how to apply, are such as express 

 emotions universally intelligible, and being incapable 

 of forming and interpreting arbitrary signs, he can 

 convey no ideas except those which are already fami- 

 liar to his associates. 



From these premises, it is not to be concluded, as 

 Des Cartes and Malebranche have done, that brutes 

 are neither more nor less than machines, qui mangent 

 sans plaisir, orient sans douleur, ne desirent rien t et 

 tie craignent rien. Nor, on the other hand, can we 

 admit the doctrine of Helvetius, that the superiority 

 of man must be referred entirely to corporeal organi- 

 sation, and to the operation of certain adventitious 

 circumstances in his outward condition. Both these 

 opinions have a tendency to degrade the human na- 

 ture ; for if, on the former supposition, the actions of 

 brutes are explicable by principles of mere mecha- 

 nism, it will not be easy to shew, that human be 

 ings are not also machines, seeing we must ascribe si 

 milar effects to similar causes ; and if the whole dif- 

 ference between the mental faculties of man and the 

 capacities of beasts, be the result of peculiarities in 

 organic structure, and accidental advantages, here, 

 too, we are reduced to the necessity of adopting a 

 system of materialism. Both these doctrines, indeed, 

 are purely hypothetical, and unsupported even by the 

 evidence of probability. We may grant, however, 

 that the conformation of the human body is peculiar- 

 ly adapted for the exertions of intelligence and will, 

 and in particular, that the distributions of the nerves 

 and muscles of the hand, the eye, the ear, and the vo- 

 cal organs, confer advantages on man, which raise 

 him greatly above the rank of the other animals. It 

 must also be allowed, that some accidental discove- 

 ries have contributed greatly to advance the arts, and 

 to confirm the supremacy of man ; -and among the 

 physical advantages to which he is indebted, it is not 

 the least conspicuous, that, from his power of subsist- 

 ing on various kinds of food, and sustaining the ex~ 

 tremes of heat and cold, he can accommodate himself 

 to every climate on the face of the earth. But these 

 circumstances are not, of themselves, sufficient to esta- 

 blish his claim to superiority, or to qualify him for 

 the dignified place which he occupies in the scale of 

 existence. He is informed by.a nobler spirit, " which 

 teacheth him more than the beasts of the earth, and 

 maketh him wiser than the fowls of heaveir." 



Hitherto we have taken notice only of those par- 

 ticulars in the constitution of brutes, which remind 



