272 LECTURE VI. 



tions of the nervous system. As we per- 

 form certain actions in consequence of rea- 

 soning, he was induced to beheve that 

 brutes act in a similar manner from a si- 

 milar cause. Regardless of the opinions 

 of great numbers of highly intellectual 

 men, that instinct is a blind impulse, un- 

 conscious of the end which it effects, he 

 maintains his own, and is consequently ob- 

 liged, as he proceeds, to suppose that 

 brutes have tradition. But I am sure, had 

 he continued to examine their actions to 

 the extent he might have done, he would 

 have been compelled, either to relinquish 

 his dogma, or to assert things still more in- 

 credible. It would require more intellect 

 and ability than falls to the lot of any hu- 

 man individual, by experiment, induction, 

 contrivance, and practice, to accomplish 

 what animals perform without education or 

 communication with one another. The 

 full consideration of this subject, induced a 

 philosopher to conclude, that the actions of 

 animals were the result of laws established 

 by an intelligent cause, and to express the 

 opinion by the brief but erapathic excla- 

 mation: " Dews est anima hrutorum^'' Yet 



