ORDER SCANSORES. 665 



than long ; but as to the intelligence of the bird, compared 

 with ours, it can only be considered that there is a point of 

 contact between them, as it were, but no resemblance. The 

 parrot's imitation seems purely mechanical ; it articulates 

 words, indeed, but this cannot be deemed a true language. In 

 the same manner as an air is taught to a linnet with a bird- 

 organ, so a word is taught to a parrot, which he repeats with- 

 out knowing wherefore. He does not comprehend its signifi- 

 cation, and though he may repeat it on certain occasions, be- 

 cause he has learned it, he sees no reason for doing so like man. 

 He utters, indifferently, a prayer or an insult, and those invo- 

 luntary substitutions, which really prove his want of intelli- 

 gence, pass, with unreflecting persons, for a mark of wit, of 

 irony, or of some other quality of mind of which the animal is 

 utterly destitute and incapable of acquiring. 



There are two kinds of imitations : one which is altogether 

 physical, and dependant on similitude of organization ; the 

 other, the fruit of reflection, volition, and intelligence ; the 

 first is possessed by the ape and the parrot — the second by 

 man alone ; one requires nothing but memory, and an aptitude 

 of organic functions — the other demands a profound study, 

 like that of comedians and tragedians. A mere imitation of 

 the exterior, such as a brute can give, is insufficient. The mind 

 and soul must be moulded, as it were, on the model imitated ; 

 this requires a certain equiponderance of mental faculties, 

 which cannot exist between man and brute of any species. 



The imitations of which we have been speaking differ again, 

 in a most essential point. It is thus ; the imitation which the 

 animal can acquire being totally physical, perishes with the 

 individual, and is not, and cannot be, transmitted by educa- 

 tion. A dog, ever so well trained and educated, never, of his 

 own accord, teaches to his whelps what he has acquired from 

 the intelligence of man ; he dies, and all perishes with him ; 

 nothing remains but the natural qualities inherent in the 



