8 An Inquiry respecting 



but was instantly seized by the dog, and being secured, confessed 

 his intentions. In a corner of the picture are these lines : 



But in my dog, whereof 1 made no store, 

 I find more love than those I trusted more. 



What an instance is this to shew the operation of a superior 

 moral and intellectual power disposing the inclinations and per- 

 ceptions of an animal, for a stated end ; while the natural voli- 

 tions of the creature were at the same time exercised by it in free- 

 dom, towards the furtherance of this end. Whether we suppose 

 the immediate means made use of to impress the animal's conscious 

 mind, to be that of an ideal imagery or anticipated view of the 

 intended act, with its accompaniments, the darkness, the silence, 

 &c. &c. — and that when it really did begin to happen — when the 

 man actually entered the room at midnight, the animal seized him 

 as described ; — or in whatever way we regard it as having been 

 effected, the operation of an influential power is most unequivocal. 

 We cannot account for this cool and dispassionate magnanimity 

 which renders the brute animal unmindful of itself, while extend- 

 ing its protection, and this with discrimination of circumstances, to 

 man, unless by a directing energy, unseen by itself, acting upon its 

 mind, and disposing it to use its immediate conscious faculties in 

 operating according to a particular dictate ; the animal as to all its 

 conscious faculties and bodily powers being left in perfect freedom^ 

 although thus overruled by a presiding power ^ of which it is totally 

 unconscious. We cannot otherwise account for the apparently 

 complex nature of brutes " which," as beautifully observed by 

 Addison, *' thus rises above reason, and falls infinitely short of it," 

 and which *' cannot be accounted for by any properties of matter, 

 and at the same time works after so odd a manner, that one cannot 

 think it the faculty {as regards the creature^ he might have added) 

 of an intellectual being." 



According io the view above taken then, the brute, within the 

 sphere of its consciousness, is in perfect freedom ; thus it is by no 

 means an automaton, but gifted with a subordinate freedom of vo- 

 lition, discrimination, and action, beneath the moral and intellec- 

 tual sphere by which it is ruled and governed. 



