286 CRITIQUES AND ADDRESSES. [xr. 



If the greyhound had no better mental endowment than 

 the Reviewer allows him, he might have the " mental 

 image" of the "sensible object" the hare and that 

 might be combined with the mental images of other 

 sensible objects, to any degree of complexity, but he 

 would have no power of judging it to be at a certain 

 distance from him ; no power of perceiving its similarity 

 to his memory of a hare ; and no desire to get at it. 

 Consequently he would stand stock still, and the noble 

 art of coursing would have no existence. On the other 

 hand, as that art is largely practised, it follows that 

 greyhounds alone possess a number of mental powers, 

 the existence of which, in any animal, is absolutely 

 denied by the Quarterly Reviewer. 



Finally, what are the mental powers which he reserves 

 as the especial prerogative of man ? They are two. 

 First, the recognition of "ourselves by ourselves as 

 affected and perceiving. Self- consciousness/' 



Secondly. " The reflection upon our sensations and 

 perceptions, and asking what they are and why they 

 are. Reason." 



To the faculty defined in the last sentence, the 

 Reviewer, without assigning the least ground for thus 

 departing from both common usage and technical pro- 

 priety, applies the name of reason. But if man is not 

 to be considered a reasoning being, unless he asks what 

 his sensations and perceptions are, and why they are, 

 what is a Hottentot, or an Australian black fellow ; or 

 what the "s winked hedger" of an ordinary agricultural 

 district \ Nay, what becomes of an average country 

 squire or parson ? How many of these worthy persons 

 who, as their wont is, read the Quarterly Review, would 

 do other than stand agape, if you asked them whether 

 they had ever reflected what their sensations and per- 

 ceptions are, and why they are ? 



