330 ANIMALS, &C. 



very easily perform with the utmost exactness ; 

 and if the fineness of the hand assisted reason, an 

 ape would be one of the most reasonable beings 

 in the creation. But these admirably formed 

 machines are almost useless both to mankind and 

 themselves; and contribute little more to the 

 happiness of animal life, than the paws of the 

 lowest quadruped. They are supplied, indeed, 

 with the organs, but they want the mind to put 

 them into action : it is that reasoning principle 

 alone, with which man has been endowed, that 

 can adapt seemingly opposite causes to concur 

 in the same general design ; and even where the 

 organs are deficient, that can supply their place 

 by the intervention of assisting instruments. 

 Where reason prevails, we find that it scarcely 

 matters what the organs are that give it the di- 

 rection ; the being furnished with that principle, 

 still goes forward, steadily and uniformly success- 

 ful ; breaks through every obstacle, and becomes 

 master of every enterprise. I have seen a man, 

 without hands or legs, convert, by practice, his 

 very stumps to the most convenient purposes -, 

 and with these clumsy instruments perform the 

 most astonishing feats of dexterity. We may 

 therefore conclude, that it is the mind alone that 

 gives a master to the creation ; and that, if a 

 bear or a horse were endowed with the same in- 

 tellects that have been given to man, the hard- 

 ness of a hoof, or the awkwardness of a paw, 

 would be no obstacle to their advancement in 

 the arts of dominion, or of social felicity. 



