386 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



superfluous to offer any proof of this ; were it otherwise, 

 animals could not be of the smallest utility to man. It is 

 possessed in the highest degree by the mammiferous ani- 

 mals, whose senses and cerebral conformation are the most 

 perfect, when compared with our own. 



It must be confessed, however, that this faculty, on 

 which all intellect is founded, is obviously possessed, by the 

 most perfect of these animals, in a much inferior degree to 

 that in which it exists in man : their senses, like his, re- 

 ceive impressions from external objects, but to the ma- 

 jority of such impressions or sensations they pay no at- 

 tention; they only take notice of those which are imme- 

 diately relative to their habitual wants, and their ideas 

 must consequently be few, and very little varied ; very 

 extraordinary circumstances are necessary to make them 

 vary their actions, or extend in any degree the circle of 

 their ideas. This takes place among them, to the greatest 

 degree we ever witness it, under the influence of man : 

 under his guidance they are susceptible of an augmented 

 education ; but when left to themselves, their unprova- 

 bility is very limited. All objects, except those in which 

 their physical wants are interested, are to them as nothing ; 

 nature presents to their view no object of wonder, of curi- 

 osity, of admiration, or of love; nothing can interest them 

 but what ministers to the relief of their wants, the gratifi- 

 cation of their appetites, security from danger, or enjoy- 

 ment of repose ; all else is seen without attention, and 

 without intelligence. 



There is, however, a vast difference in this respect 

 between animals of different species. The actions of the 

 Elephant above quoted, were almost all independent of 

 physical wants; those of the domesticated race at large are 

 not unfrequently of the same character: in the wild genera 

 they are much less common, though among these even there 

 seems a difference in this respect. Look, for instance, at 



