62 DESCARTES 



their company, have leisure to learn their language. 

 And this proves not only that the brutes have less 

 Reason than man, but that they have none at all : 



* 



for we see that very little is required to enable a 

 person to speak ; and since a certain inequality of 

 capacity is observable among animals of the same 

 species, as well as among men, and since some are 

 more capable of being instructed than others, it is 

 incredible that the most perfect ape or parrot of its 

 species, should not in this be equal to the most 

 stupid infant of its kind, or at least to one that was 

 crack-brained, unless the soul of brutes were of a 

 nature wholly different from ours. And we ought 

 not to confound speech with the natural movements 

 which indicate the passions, and can be imitated by 

 machines as well as manifested by animals; nor 

 must it be thought with certain of the ancients, that 

 the brutes speak, although we do not understand 

 their language. For if such were the case, since 

 they are endowed with many organs analogous to 

 ours, they could as easily communicate their 

 thoughts to us as to their fellows. It is also very 

 worthy of remark, that, though there are many ani 

 mals which manifest more industry than we in cer 

 tain of their actions, the same animals are yet 

 observed to show none at all in many others : so that 

 the circumstance that they do better than we does 

 not prove that they are endowed with mind, for it 

 would thence follow that they possessed greater 

 Reason than any of us, and could surpass us in all 

 things; on the contrary, it rather proves that they 

 are destitute of Reason, and that it is Nature which 



