Analysis of Dr. HancocTc's theory. 7$ 



principles of brute action. That a remote freedom of this kind is 

 possessed even by the vegetable subject is evident. It cannot be 

 supposed, for instance, that the lines in which the fibres of the 

 roots extend themselves from the trunk are predetermined and 

 geometrically directed in their course ; although there is an influ- 

 ence which unquestionably directs their multiplication and exten- 

 sion in the quarter to insure sustenance or security : there seems 

 therefore to be a remote degree of subordinate freedom proper to 

 the plant, by which it shoots out its roots according to a law of 

 regulation^ and, at the same time, a law of permission.^ In the 

 actions of Animals, their subordinate freedom will be increased 

 in its perfection to the degree in which we observe it ; and in 

 many of the actions of the higher classes among them, this freedom 

 will form the most prominent, because the most apparent feature : 

 such for instance as in that of a cur worrying a harnessed horse in 

 his progress, and all the more ordinary and indifferent actions of 

 animals. This subordinate freedom must, however, have its limit; 

 and Dr. Hancock has endeavoured to assign this limit, as respects 

 animals, by restricting the use of the term Reason to signify 

 what metaphysicians have termed the " Discursive Faculty^'''' or 

 power of ratiocination and comparison, considered abstractedly 

 from those Superior Principles which he includes in the " enlarged 

 use''' of the term Reason, and which he considers as belonging ex- 

 t lusively to Man. 



Now although a distinction, in terms, respecting those indifFer- 

 ei\t actions to which I have just adverted, might perhaps be made, 

 the adoption of the term reason would be evidently, in this case, 

 improper; since this term, by common consent, includes higher 

 principles : thus the actions which Dr. Hancock has taken as types 

 of the operations of this " Discursive Faculty," or " Reason," 



* " When two trees of the same kind are planted," says Dr. Fleming, " the 

 one in a sheltered, the other in an exposed situation, we witness the display of 

 this faculty (instinct) in a very remarkable degree. The former pushes forth 

 its roots in all directions, more especially where there is the greatest supply of 

 nourishment, and the highest temperature; vvliile the latter, which, were it to 

 act in the same manner, would be speedily overturned, multiplies its roots in 

 the direction of the strongest blasts, and these, acting like the stays of a ship's 

 mast, preserve the -trunk in its vertical position. Phil, of Zool. vol. 1. p. 18. 



