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 ; 



