INTRODUCTtON. 21 



soiling faculty and the imagiiuitioii innunierahle materials, and to indivi- 

 duals means of communication, which cause the whole species to participate 

 in the experience of each individual, so that no bounds seem to be placed 

 to the acquisition of knowledge — it is the distinguishing character of hu- 

 man intelligence. 



Although, with respect to the intellectual faculties, the most perfect ani- 

 mals are infinitely beneath man, it is certain that their intelligence per- 

 forms operations of the same kind. They move in consequence of sensa- 

 tions received, are susceptible of durable aiFections, and acquire by expe- 

 rience a certain knowledge of things, by which they are governed inde- 

 pendently of actual pain or pleasure, and by the simple foresight of con- 

 sequences. Wlien domesticated, they feel their subordination, know that 

 the being who punishes them may refrain from so doing if he will, and, 

 when sensible of having done wrong, or behold him angry, they assume a 

 suppliant and deprecating air. In the society of man they become either 

 corrupted or improved, and are susceptible of emulation and jealousy ; they 

 have among themselves a natural language, which, it is true, is merely the 

 expression of their momentary sensations, but man teaches them to under- 

 stand another, much more complicated, by which he makes known to them 

 his will, and causes them to execute it. 



To sum up all, we perceive in the higher animals a certain degree of rea- 

 son, with all its consequences, good and bad, and which appears to be about 

 the same as that of children ere they have learned to speak. The lower 

 we descend from man the weaker these faculties become, and at the bottom 

 of the scale we find them reduced to signs (at times equivocal) of sensibi- 

 lity, that is, to some few slight movements to escape from pain. Between 

 these two extremes the degrees are infinite. 



In a great number of animals, however, there exists another kind of in- 

 telligence, called instinct. This induces them to certain actions necessary 

 to the preservation of the species, but very often altogether foreign to the 

 apparent wants of the individual ; often also very complicated, and which, 

 if attributed to intelligence, would suppose a foresight and knowledge in 

 the species that perform them, infiuitely superior to what can possibly be 

 granted. These actions, the result of instinct, ave not the effect of imita- 

 ti'.n, for very frequently the individuals who execute them have never seen 

 cnem performed by others : they are not proportioned to ordinary intelli- 

 gence, but become more singular, more wise, more disinterested, in propor- 

 tion as the animals belong to less elevated classes, and in all the rest of 

 their actions are more dull and stupid. They are so entirely the property 

 of the species, that all its individuals perform them in the same way, with- 

 out ever improving them a particle. 



The working bees, for instance, have always constructed Very ingenious 



