752 THE DOG. 



offence, though no human eye may have seen him commit it. 

 Some metaphysicians, indeed, affirm, that we can only reason 

 from generals by means of words or signs ; but is a person 

 born deaf and dumb incapable of reasoning from generals ? 

 Has not such a person an idea of time, place, and distance, 

 though he has no sound of the voice with which to associate his 

 ideas I The Dog has probably no sound of the voice to express 

 his conception of distance, time, and place, but he has corres- 

 ponding ideas to the degree necessary to compare one distance 

 with another, one period of time with another, and to know 

 and distinguish places. He knows the period required to pass 

 over a given space to a minute, can count recurring intervals 

 of time with precision, and knows, of place, that which enables 

 him to act as if he had a term to express his conception of it. 

 The power, indeed, of abstraction or generalization, is 

 probably very limited in the inferior animals ; but yet it 

 must be believed to exist to the degree of enabling them to 

 compare, to reflect, and to draw conclusions, to the extent 

 to which they exercise these faculties. But even if we were 

 to admit the position that dogs and other animals cannot 

 form abstract conceptions, notions, or ideas, that would not 

 shew that they did not reason, but merely that their power 

 of reasoning did not extend to the degree of forming such 

 conceptions, notions, or ideas. 



The singular tendency, distinctive of the metaphysical re- 

 searches of certain philosophers, to reduce the numberless 

 creatures which a gracious Providence has been pleased to 

 call into being, into mere machines, destitute of the power of 

 thought and reflection, seems to have its origin in the mis- 

 taken notion that we can exalt the human species by degrad- 

 ing all the others. But surely the chasm between the mental 

 attributes of man and those of all other animated creatures is 

 too wide to give us cause to fear that they can be confounded. 

 The inferior animals may compare, may reflect, may will, 

 may adapt means to ends, nay. may possess the faculty of 

 abstraction to the degree of allowing them to exercise the 



