Human Understanding. 261 



ence, the intellectual powers of even the 

 highest is extremely circumscribed. 

 The dog is a favoured, and a very saga- 

 cious domestic animal: he feels the be- 

 nign influence of the parlour fire, and 

 enjoys it as much as any of the human 

 gpecies ; but he never can be made senr- 

 sible of the uses to which heat may be 

 applied in changing the nature of bodies 

 which are subjected to its power ; he 

 never can be made to conceive how a 

 piece of coal, or a billet of wood, can 

 augment the heat, and continue to sup- 

 port it ; and thus he cannot spontaneous- 

 ly feed the fire when occasion shall re- 

 quire it ; a degree of reasoning which a 

 child acquires almost before it can walk, 

 and which even an idiot knows. In 

 like manner the elephant, the most saga- 

 cious of the brute creation, delights in 

 the sugar-cane, and gives evident indica- 

 tions that this is a food which he relish- 

 es in the highest degree, and when he 

 once discovers where it is to be found, 

 will expose himself to any danger to ob- 

 tain it ; but .no elephant hath ever yet 

 been able to discover that if the joints, 

 of these plants be buried to a certain 

 Y2 



