THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 39 



existence through the exercise of the mental organs, which are known 

 to have their seat in the brain. Science pronounces all phenomena 

 to be the result of matter in motion, and it defines mind to be the 

 result of this particular kind of matter in motion, of which the brain 

 is composed. Whether it can* exist apart from matter, or manifest 

 itself in any way except through matter, science knows not. When 

 man is compared with the lower animals in this particular, science 

 finds them possessed of similar faculties, manifesting themselves in 

 similar ways, grading from mere sensitiveness up to a very high 

 degree of intelligence, which it pronounces to be one in kind with 

 man's differing only in degree. Indeed, in some of them, some of 

 the faculties attain a far higher degree of development than the 

 corresponding ones in man ; but in this as in their anatomy, 

 although all the mental faculties of man may be found scattered 

 up and down amongst the lower animals they are not found com- 

 bined in any one, so that it is impossible to say which of them is 

 nearest to man, except in the one particular that is characteristic 

 of them. 



Science finds man to be a social being. Of this it is needless 

 to speak, further than to say, that by means of it he attains to his 

 highest point of excellence, and through it sinks to his lowest depths 

 of degradation. 



Science finds man endowed with powers of speech; that is, he 

 is capable of expressing his thoughts in language that is intelligi- 

 ble to others. Whether he has the faculty of originating language 

 to express his thoughts, without the aid of education, science 

 has not yet demonstrated ; but the experiments that have been made 

 in that direction strongly favor the presumption that he has, and 

 that children cut off from an opportunity of learning a language 

 from others, would begin to exercise the faculty amongst themselves, 

 and originate a language that they could understand, which might 

 become the medium of intercourse for a nation. The lower ani- 

 mals have the power of communicating by sounds, with their fellows 

 of the same kind, but these are of very limited range, and are prin- 

 cipally connected with the preservation of their lives, and the con- 

 tinuance ot their kind. Animals in domestication can be educated 

 into understanding man's order given in articulate speech, but how 

 their minds receive and act on it, we learn only through their ac- 

 tions, and how liable they are to be misunderstood, we know from 



