364 OFTHENATURE 



defedive, not in the mechanifm of their or- 

 gans, but in their intelledual powers. 



Language implies a train of thinking; and it 

 is for this reafon that brute animals are incapa- 

 ble of fpeech : For, though we ihould allow them 

 to pofTefs fomething fimilar to our firft appre- 

 henfions, and to our moft grofs and mechanical 

 fenfations, it is certain that they are unable to 

 form that alfociation of ideas in which alone the 

 effence of refledion and of thought confifts. 

 They can neither think nor fpeak, becaufe they 

 can neither join nor feparate ideas; and, for the 

 fame reafon, they neither invent nor bring any 

 thing to perfection. If they were endowed with 

 the power of refleding, even in the flighteft de- 

 gree, they would be capable of making fome 

 progrefs, and acquire more induftry ; the pre- 

 fent race of beavers would build their houfes with 

 more art and folidity than their progenitors; and 

 the bee would daily improve the cell which fhe 

 inhabits : Foi, by fuppofmg that this cell has all 

 the perfedion of which it is capable, we afcribe 

 to this infed a genius and underftanding fuperi- 

 or to the human, by which it is enabled, at one 

 glance, to perceive the utmoft point of perfec- 

 tion to which its woik can be carried. But 

 man never can attain a clear view of this point : 

 Much time, refiedion, and pradice, are neceffa- 

 jy, before the mcaneft of our arts can be brought 

 to maturity. 



Whence 



