166 Mr. French on the nature of Instinct. 



of the Parrot who spoke Portuguese from his own proper ra- 

 tionality. 



It appears evident then, that a rational acquaintance with the 

 qualities of things, supposes the being of whom it is affirmed, to be 

 endowed with a species of thought the same as that developed 

 audibly by articulate language ; since this thought forms the basis 

 of rational ideas. If therefore Brutes do not possess this species of 

 thought, their conscious ideas of objects must be non-rational, and 

 must consist of pecM^z'cr modifications of impressions received from 

 the senses, and differing in their nature from the ideas taken up 

 by the human mind through the same medium. In my first Essay 

 I observed, — " although man possesses a lower or animal mind, 

 similar, as considered distinctly and by itself to the brute mind, 

 and which inferior mind or region he looks down upon from an in- 

 tellectual eminence, it is evident that his consciousness respecting 

 even the things of this inferior region, is illumined by the glorious 

 light of intellect and rationality which is proper to him." If this 

 be true, the converse must also be true as applied to the Brute ; 

 and hence must arise a distinction between the nature of the Ideas 

 and Memory of Brutes, and the Ideas and Memory of Man. 

 With this view, the modifications of Memory which 1 for- 

 merly considered as proper to Brutes, and which, as then men- 

 tioned, I found corroborated in a work by Mr. Forsyth, will be 

 seen to accord, and also to be in harmony with the course of brute 

 action in general ; agreeing with the unconscious intelligence dis- 

 played therein, in a mnnner which I cannot perceive possible by 

 adopting any system or theory which ascribes to brutes a voluntary 

 power of thought and memory. 



Mr. Forsyth observes — " By means of involuntary memory, an 

 inferior animal may be taught to expect particular events. If the 

 same word is repeated to a Dog every time he is fed, the sound of 

 the word will become involuntarily associated in his memory with 

 the pleasure of eating, and he will acquire the habit of coming to 

 the person who pronounces this word ; but he can never make use 

 of this or of any other word himself, because he cannot voluntarily 

 recollect or recall it to his memory. When he sees an object, he 



