EVOLUTION OF LIFE. 83 



power than what arises from the mere matter 

 of which they are composed ; the one can no 

 more have communion with spiritual things, 

 than the most ignorant and uneducated among 

 the sons of men, is able to understand the 

 highest branches of human knowledge ; to ob- 

 tain, for example, a perfect knowledge of geo- 

 metry, although totally ignorant of lines and 

 figures ; of all languages, without possessing 

 any apprehension of sound ; and of all sciences, 

 without any perception whatever of the truths, 

 or principles, on which they are founded. 



Between the lowest degrees of instinct and 

 of sense, the offspring of animal existence and 

 the mind of man, there can be no understand- 

 ing, because there is no analogy between them ; 

 the most irrational animal is no more able to 

 apprehend the knowledge of the most ra- 

 tional man, than the most rational man is able 

 to imitate the instinct of the most irrational 

 brute; the cause lays in the ignorance of the one, 

 and the wisdom of the other. No correspon- 

 dence whatever can subsist between beings 

 whose natures are separated by a chasm so 

 widely different. It is with a view of adapting 

 our meaning to the level of the understanding 

 of the brute, that we converse with them in 

 a silly unmeaning manner ; to them a wise and 

 intelligent conversation would be unintelligible 

 and foolish. Children, therefore, or men who 



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