211 



to these two general classes, pleasure and pain, separated 

 from each other by degree* which are frequently insen- 

 sible, and issuing from the same origin. The expression 

 of pleasure and pain is not alike in all animals; because 

 the organs, by means whereof the soul manifests her 

 sentiments, are not the same in all. 



There are species in which feeling is manifested by a 

 greater number of signs, more varied, more expressive. 

 What expression, for instance, is there in the air, the 

 motions; and the various attitudes of an ape, a horse, a 

 dog, a cat ? There is not much les$ expression in birds 

 than in quadrupeds. Fishes do not express tlremselves 

 with the same clearness and energy; they form a dumb 

 people, amongst whom the language by signs is little 

 practised : but the extreme vivacity of their motions 

 Mjems, in part, to compensate for their sterility of ex- 

 pression. Reptiles, shell-fish, and injects, which are still 

 at a greater distance from us than fishes, express to us 

 their feelings in a more obscure manner 5 'but which, 

 notwithstanding, we can conceive to a certain degree, 

 and often acknowledge to be very expressive. 



On the contrary, we do not discover in the plant any 

 sign of feeling. All in that seems to be purely mecha- 

 nical : its life appears to be less a life than a simple du- 

 ration. We cultivate a plant, or we destroy it, without 

 experiencing any thing similar to what we meet with 

 when we cherish an animal, or put it to death. We 

 see the plant shoot forth, grow, flourish, and bud, as 

 we perceive the hand of a clock to have passed over the 

 points of the dial. 



These considerations lead us to consider Jee ling as a 

 character proper for distinguishing the vegetable frdm 

 the animal. 



27. Since, then, the faculty of feeling furnishes us 

 - but with a doubtful character for distinguishing the ve- 

 getable from the animal, which is that we should have 

 recourse to with this view] I think we have exhausted 



