CLASS I. MAMMALIA: ORDER 1. BIMANA. 



39 



that a comparison is scarcely possible. The highest moral endowments of animals are shown in 

 their attachment to their offspring; but this ceases when the period of helplessness is past, and 

 there is no evidence of attachment between individuals, except in the associated labors of some 

 species, and the consentaneous actions of the male and female for the safety of the offspring. The 

 arts of which animals are capable are limited, and peculiar to each species ; and there seems to be 

 no evidence of a power of invention, or of construction for any purpose beyond that to which the 

 original and instinctive powers are adapted. What is the vaunted village of the beaver, the most 

 ingenious of quadrupeds, in comparison with a human city, with its ships and merchandise, its 

 temples, churches, and dwellings, its libraries, and its monuments of art ! 



In intimate connection with his exalted mental endowments is man's peculiar possession of lan- 

 guage, already alluded to, the immense results of which, in the accumulating, recording, and dis- 

 tributing of knowledge, it is scarcely possible to conceive. Other animals are naturally speechless, 

 not from any material difference in the structure of their organs — for man can teach some of them 

 to imitate him — but from their inability to form those associations of ideas which are essential to 

 the construction and utterance of words. 

 f Among the monkeys, the adults exercise au- 

 thority over the young, and it is said maintain it 

 , even by chastisement ; but there is no instance 

 in which the stronger species has exercised au- 

 thoritv over the weaker, or brought it into a state 

 of servitude. Even when made the associates 

 of man, and instructed by him, how little have 

 animals learned ! — a few unmeaning tricks, unwil- 

 linglv performed, a few words uttered and con- 

 stantly repeated, without choice or a conception 

 of their meaning, and sullen passive submission, 

 are in general the best results that can be found. 

 There is not a proof in the whole history of ani- 

 mals that any species or individual has ever made 

 an advance toward an improvement, or an altera- 

 tion in its condition. "Whether solitary or living 

 in herds, the habits of all remain the same ; all of 



the same species appear endowed with the same 



faculties and dispositions, and each is in mental 



power the same throughout its life. 



Contrast with these the progress of man. In 



his origin weak, naked, and defenceless, he has 



not only obtained dominion over all the animate 



creation, but the very elements are made to serve 



his purpose. Of the earth he has built his houses, 



and constructed weapons and the implements of 



art; he uses the wind to carry him in ships and 



to prepare his food ; and when the wind will not 



suit him, he employs fire and water to replace or to 



resist it. By artificial light he has prevented the 



inconveniences of darkness ; he has stopped and 



made rivers, and has forced deserts, marshes, and 



forests alike to produce his food. He has marked 



out and measured the course of the celestial 



bodies, till he has discovered from them the size and form of the earth that he himself inhabits. 



And besides all this, man extends his views beyond this life. He knows and anticipates death, 



and instructed alike by the inductions of Reason and the teachings of a divine revelation, he, and 



he alone, aspires to Immortality. 



