364 THE SENSORIAL FUNCTIONS. 



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 concretion 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, di- 

 rected, like our own, to obvious ends, proceed 

 from voluntary acts, and imply the operation of 

 an intellect, not wholly dissimilar in its spiritual 

 essence from our own ? In vain may Descartes 

 and his followers labour to sustain their paradox, 

 that brutes are only automata, — mere pieces of 

 artificial mechanism, insensible either to plea- 

 sure or to pain, and incapable of internal affec- 

 tions, analogous to those of which we are con- 

 scious in ourselves. Their sophistry will avail 

 but little against the plain dictates of the under- 

 standing. To those who refuse to admit that 

 enjoyment, which implies the powers of sensa- 

 tion, and of voluntary motion, is the great end of 

 animal existence, the object of its creation must 

 for ever remain a dark and impenetrable mys- 

 tery ; by such minds must all further inquiry 

 into final causes be at once abandoned as utterly 

 vain and hopeless. But it surely requires no 

 laboured refutation to overturn a system that 

 violates every analogy by which our reasonings 

 on these subjects must necessarily be guided ; 



