72 THE PHILOSOPHY 



do they poiTefs the ineftimable faculty of tranfiiiltting the 

 knowledge acquired by individuals from generation to gener- 

 ation. By means of their fenfes, they learn to diftinguilh 

 their enemies, or hurtful objects, at a diilance ; and they 

 know how to avoid them. Experience teaches them to dif- 

 criminate objects of pleafure from thofe of pain ; and they 

 adl according to the feeHngs excited by thefe objects. Some 

 animals can even accommodate their inftindls to particular 

 circumftances and fituations. The feelings of brutes are 

 often more exquifite than ours. They have fenfations j but 

 their faculty of comparing them, or of forming ideas, is 

 much circumfcribed. A dog or a monkey can imitate 

 fome human a(^ions, and are capable of receiving a certain 

 degree of inftru6tion. But their progrefs foon flops : Na- 

 ture has fixed the boundaries of mental as well as of corpo- 

 real powers ; and thefe boundaries are as various as the num- 

 ber of diflindl fpecies. Our wonder is equally excited by 

 the fagacity of fome animals, and by the flupidity of others. 

 This gradation of mental faculties originates from the num- 

 ber or paucity of inflin6ls beftowed on particular fpecies, 

 joined to the greater or fmaller power of extending or modi- 

 fying thefe inflin(Sts by experience and obfervation. Man 

 is endowed with a greater number of infiindls than any other 

 animal. The fuperiority of his rank, however, does not 

 proceed from this fource alone. Man enjoys beyond every 

 other animal the faculty of extending, improving, and modi- 

 fying the different inflindls he has received from Nature. It 

 is this faculty which enables him to compare his feelings, to 

 form ideas, and to reafon concerning both. The bee makes 

 cells, and the beaver conflrucls habitations of clay. The 

 order of their architedure, however, is invariably the fame. 

 Man likewife builds houfes : But he is not forced, by an ir- 

 refiflible inftincH:, to work always on the fame plan. His 

 habitations, on the contrary, vary with the fancy of the in- 

 dividuals who defign and conflru^t them. 



