SENSATION. 259 



superadded the still more subtle and potent agencies of ca- 

 loric and of electricity: every resource has been employed, 

 every refinement studied, every combination exhausted that 

 could ensure the stability, and' prolong the duration of the 

 system, amidst the multifarious causes which continually 

 menace it with destruction. It has been supplied with am- 

 ple means of repairing the accidents to which it is ordinarily 

 exposed; it has been protected from the injurious influence 

 of the surrounding elements, and fitted to resist for a length- 

 ened period the inroads of disease, and the progress of 

 decay. 



But can this, which is mere physical existence, be the sole 

 end of life? Is there no farther purpose to be answered by 

 structures so exquisitely contrived, and so bountifully pro- 

 vided with the means of maintaining an active existence, than 

 the mere accumulation and cohesion of inert materials, dif- 

 fering from the stones of the earth only in the more arti- 

 ficial arrangement of their particles, and the more varied 

 configuration of their texture? Is the growth of an animal 

 to be ranked in the same class of phenomena as the concre- 

 tion of a pebble, or the crystallization of a salt? Must we not 

 ever associate the power of feeling with the idea of animal 

 life? Can we divest ourselves of the persuasion* that the 

 movements of animals directed like our own, to obvious 

 ends, proceed from voluntary acts, and imply the operation 

 of an intellect, not wholly dissimilar in its spiritual es- 

 sence from our own? In vain may Descartes and his fol- 

 lowers labour to sustain their paradox, that brutes are only 

 automata, mere pieces of artificial mechanism, insensible 

 either to pleasure or to pain, and incapable of internal af- 

 fections, analogous to those of which we are conscious in our- 

 selves. Their sophistry will avail but little against the plain 

 dictates of the understanding. To those who refuse to admit 

 that enjoyment, which implies the powers of sensation, and 

 of voluntary motion, is the great end of animal existence, the 

 object of its creation must for ever remain a dark and im- 

 penetrable mystery; by such minds must all farther inquiry 



