130 ON ZOOLOGY. 



agency in the brain, can be called into action at 

 the will of the individual; thus constituting what 

 has been termed voluntary locomotion, or the 

 power by which the animal can at pleasure move 

 a particular part, or change its position, whether 

 in search of food, to avoid danger, or for the pur- 

 pose of more closely congregating with its species. 



Thus nature, by these several attributes, has 

 provided the animal kingdom with the means of 

 discovering, and of avoiding danger; of feeling 

 pain at one time which, while it adds to their 

 security, contributes in a comparative degree 

 to their pleasure at another; and of partaking 

 through the medium of their senses, of a vast 

 variety of gratifications that contribute to the 

 enjoyment of their existence. 



But these properties alone would not have qua- 

 lified them to be useful, had they not been endued 

 with some other principle by which their move- 

 ments in all their respective varieties, might be 

 regulated; and this principle, which, for the 

 present we must denominate intellect, has been 

 acquired by the various impressions which the 

 frequent exercise of their organs of sense has 

 made upon that seat of all sensation, the brain; 

 which possessing (by means beyond all human 

 comprehension) the property of concentrating the 

 ordinary sensations, so as to give them one im- 

 pulse, has enabled animals, in different degrees, to 

 judge for themselves, and to act accordingly. 



