38 INTRODUCTION. 



from the natural impulses of the heart, than from a 

 mistaken consideration of the real rank that this com- 

 panion of our mortal pilgrimage holds in Nature's scale. 

 If it were customary to consider the higher orders of 

 brute animals not as mere machines, endowed with fa- 

 culties purely instinctive, and just suflScient to preserve 

 their existence and extend their species *^ ; but, on the 

 contrary, if they w^ere universally regarded in their true 

 light, as beings highly intellectual, actuated l)y the no- 

 blest passions, endued with memory and recollection 2**, 

 disposed to imitation, profiting by experience, and 

 acquiring skill from discipline and instruction, then we 

 might hope to see them regarded in their true light ; to 

 witness their importance generally acknowledged ; and, 

 consequently, to observe their situation ameliorated. 

 These mental properties, in some degree common to all 



*9 " Whatever aftectioiis are displayed by animals, they are ac- 

 " counted but the mere eftect of mechanic impulse: however they 

 ** may ver«^e on human wisdom, their actions are said to have only 

 *' the semblance of sagacity. Enlightened by reason, man considers 

 " himself immensely removed from animals, who (as he considers) 

 *' have only instinct for their guide ; and, born to immortality, he 

 " scorns to acknowledge, with brutes that perish, a social bond. 

 " Such are the unfeeling dogmas which are early instilled into the 

 " mind, and which induce a callous insensibility foreign to the na- 

 " tive texture of the heart : such are the cruel speculations which 

 " prepare us for the practice of that remorseless tyranny, and which 

 *• palliate the foul oppression that we exercise over our infeiior but 

 " fellow creatures." — Oswald. 



3° Philosophers distinguish between remembrance and recollec- 

 tion : the former is, according to Aristotle, a passive faculty, acted 

 on by antecedent impressions when circumstances have occasionally 

 arisen to revive them. Recollection implies mental exertion, and 

 the deductions of reason, with a capacity of deriving knowledge 

 from experience. Allowing this definition to be just, a correct 

 analysis of the brute mind will clearly shew them possessed of this 

 faculty, although philosophers have usually denied it them. 



