INTELLECTUAL FACULTIES OF MAN. fi79 



man, and constitute the source of the immense 

 superiority he enjoys over the brute creation, 

 which so frequently excels him in the perfection 

 of subordinate powers. In strength and swift- 

 ness he is surpassed by many quadrupeds. In 

 vain may he wish for the power of flight pos- 

 sessed by the numerous inhabitants of air. He 

 may envy that range of sight which enables the 

 bird to discern, from a height at which it is itself 

 invisible to our eyes, the minutest objects on the 

 surface of the earth. He may regret the dull- 

 ness of his own senses, when he adverts to the 

 exquisite scent of the hound, or the acute hear- 

 ing of the bat. While the delicate perceptions 

 of the lower animals teach them to seek the food 

 which is salutary, and avoid that which is inju- 

 rious, man alone seems stinted in his powers of 

 discrimination, and is compelled to gather in- 

 struction from a painful and hazardous expe- 

 rience. But if nature has created him thus 

 apparently helpless, and denied him those in- 

 stincts with which she has so liberally furnished 

 the rest of her offspring, it was only to confer 

 upon him gifts of infinitely higher value. While 

 in acuteness of sense he is surpassed by inferior 

 animals, in the powers of intellect he stands 

 unrivalled. In the fidelity and tenacity with 

 which impressions are retained in his memory, 

 in the facility and strength with which they are 

 associated, in grasp of comprehension, in extent 



