Influence of the Human Mind upon Brutes. ♦ 171 



5pressions of a rational and intelligent mind exercised upon the 

 qualities, and determining the intrinsic relations of the objects 

 presented io it. 



The practical illustrations which I am about to oflfer will, I 

 irust, place this inference in a less dubious light than that of 

 mere hypothesis. 



If then the supposed reasoning faculty in animals be incapable 

 of regarding objectively the most obvious natural properties of 

 external objects, much less can animals be considered capable of 

 viewing objectively the properties or qualities of actions either 

 in themselves or man. We are therefore led to ask — to what 

 principle are we to refer those actions, apparently rational, 

 which are performed by Brutes in their state of intercourse with 

 Man. The answer to this question has, I trust, in some measure 

 been anticipated, but I proceed to a specific consideration of it. 



If brute creatures have, in any instance, perceptions imparted 

 to them according to the peculiar affections of which they are 

 made susceptible, there can be no reason why the perceptions so 

 imparted should not be of a kind suited io the nature of the 

 circumstances in one case, as well as in another ; thus we are 

 warranted in assuming that in the intercourse of brutes with man 

 (which, by the way, appears io be regulated according to pecu- 

 liar laws of permission) there can be no reason why a knowledge 

 especially fitted to the nature of such intercourse should not be 

 imparted as an accommodated instinct, through the medium of 

 man, or otherwise, — in the present case as well as in that of 

 the intercourse between brute and brute. An accommodating 

 Power in Instinct, or a variation of Perception not ascribable 

 io any reasoning process, is admitted ;* why then, if instinctive 

 perception varies under other circumstances, should it not vary 

 for the purposes of intercourse between the Brute and Man ? and 

 why should we seek to superadd the Principle of Reason, as pos- 

 sessed by the latter ? Dr. Hancock observes, that in the actions 

 he enumerates of animals under the sphere of human influence, 

 the elements of reason are comprehended ; and we have seen 

 that they are not less so, in the operations of direct instinct ; 



* Hancock on Instinct — p. 102. 



