74 EVOLUTION OF LIFE. 



it is exposed from different animals, by whom 

 it is devoured or destroyed ; we, therefore, see 

 it get out of their reach. Mr. Locke observes, 

 " that animals seem to have perceptions of 

 particular truths, and within very narrow limits, 

 the faculty of reason ; but we have no reason," 

 says he, " for supposing that their natural ope- 

 rations are performed with the view to conse- 

 quences, and therefore not the result of a train 

 of reasoning in the mind of the animal." So 

 far, however, from this assertion being well 

 founded, all the voluntary motions, on the con- 

 trary, which animals perform, to me appear the 

 result of a motive which exists in them, and 

 that the organs which they employ, have objects 

 for their end. The acquisition of food and of 

 intercourse, are the consequences of the natu- 

 ral actions which every animal displays ; it is 

 the nature of this impulse or motive, through 

 the power of which those actions are produced, 

 that constitutes the distinction in the appetites 

 of different animated beings, to the gratification 

 of which all their pursuits are especially di- 

 rected. 



If I were to enter into a particular examina- 

 tion of the corporeal means which are possess* 

 ed by the higher and lower order, I should be 

 led to acknowledge the total indigency of the 

 one, and the self-sufficiency of the other. While 

 vegetables shed their seed upon the soil, and 



