28 An Inquiry respecting 



any advantage over the Bee or the Beaver in this respect; the in- 

 stinctive science he displays in the chace is evidently not objec- 

 tively reflected upon by him, which is manifest from the fact that 

 his ordinary nature is rvot at all elevated or refined by any percep- 

 tions or conclusions which would result from the view of his acute 

 instinctive discrimiiaations. The Dog, as Ave all know, is a keen 

 and clever sportsman ; but if in this case his discriminations were 

 the result of reflection, — if he had the power of consciously re- 

 flecting in himself, at the time of the chace, on what was proper 

 to be done and on the best means of procedure ; and if this power 

 were not derived from some hidden principle of impulse acting 

 upon his conscious nature, he would have the power to reflect, sub- 

 sequently, both upon the means and the action, the whole of which 

 would thus be made the object of his proper reflection. He would 

 thus be able to take an intellectual view of the chace, and of his 

 own peculiar capabilities ; the door of analysis would be opened to 

 him ; and, contrary to the fact, he would thus advance at least 

 one step in the scale of intellect. If however we admit, — what 

 seems to accord alike with reason and with fact, — that his con- 

 scious mind must have been, in this exercise of his instinct, im- 

 pressed by an agency above it, no such consequence as that alluded 

 to would follow, from the most wonderful display of adroitness and 

 discrimination. The impression ceasing or subsiding with the re- 

 quirement, would leave him precisely where it found him ; and 

 accordingly we find, that the Hound, who displays the most con- 

 summate skill and manoeuvre in the chace, remains stationary, and 

 does not ascend into the scale of intellectual consciousness ; nor 

 can he as to intellectual superiority be ranked above the contemned 

 and undignified Cur. 



The incongruities in the actions of brutes, afford again striking 

 proofs that they act under the operation of an intelligence superior 

 to the plane of their proper perception j and which, if we consider 

 it as aiFecting them through a limited chajinel, bj particular im- 

 pressions on their conscious faculties, will account for the wonder- 

 ful operations performed by many of them, who axe not in any wise 

 remarkable for their general sagacity ; whose traits of perfec- 

 tion are circumscribed by au exceedingly narrow limit, and which 



