30% PHILOSOPHY OF ZOOLOGY. 



The acquisition of this restraint over the instinctive 

 powers, this victory over self, is the most difficult, but 

 the most valuable of all our conquests. It is the ultimate 

 object of a rational and an immortal being. 



An eloquent writer, whose authority in the science of 

 mind is deservedly respected, but who appears but imper- 

 fectly acquainted with the principles of action in the lower 

 animals, has given it as his opinion, that the reason of man, 

 in reference to his active powers, renders his nature and 

 condition essentially different from that of brutes; and adds, 

 " They are incapable of looking forward to consequences, 

 or of comparing together the different gratifications of 

 which they are susceptible ; and, accordingly, as far as we 

 are able to perceive, they yield to every present impulse. 

 But man is able to take a comprehensive survey of his va- 

 rious principles of action, and to form a plan of conduct for 

 the attainment of his favourite objects. Every such plan 

 implies a power of refusing occasionally, to particular ac- 

 tive principles, the gratification which they demand *." The 

 merits of this distinction between man and the lower animals 

 will best appear, by comparing both as placed in nearly si- 

 milar circumstances. The cultivation of the power of re- 

 straining the instinctive or active principles, does not ap- 

 pear to be necessaay in order to form the character of a sa- 

 vage. He has appetites, desires, and affections whose gratifi- 

 cation is necessary to his welfare, and few opportunities oc- 

 cur where indulgence to excess is either practicable or desir- 

 able. It is only in the progress of civilization, when property 

 has been acquired, and personal rights recognized, that man 

 feels the necessity of imposing upon himself laws or re- 

 straints upon his active principles. It is difficult to find an 

 opportunity of examining man in a very low state of intel- 

 lectual improvement. The intercourse of Europeans has 



* Outlines of Moral Philosophy," by DUGALD STEWAKT, p. 109. Edin. 

 1808. 



