158 THE PHILOSOPHY 



ftrui^s the latter in the geftures and inarticulate language of the 

 child. 



The idea of a machine implies a feleft combination of the com- 

 mon properties of matter. The regularity of its movements is a 

 proof that they are totally diftindt from animal or fpontaneous mo- 

 tion. A machine has nothing analogous to fenfation, which is the 

 loweft charad:eriftic of an animal. An miimated machine, therefore, 

 is an i.bfurd abuie of terms. It confounds what Nature has diftin- 

 guiflied in the moft unambiguous manner. The inftindls of brutes 

 are, in general, ftrcngcr, and lefs fubje£l to reftraint, than thofe of 

 man. The reafon is plain : They have not an equal number of in- 

 ftin£ts to curb, counterbalance, or moderate their motives to parti- 

 cular adlions. Hence they have often the appearance of atfting by 

 mereimpulfe; and this clrcumftance has led fome philofophers to 

 confider brutes as machines. But they refle£l not that children, fa- 

 vages, and ignorant men, a£t nearly in the fame manner. It is fo- 

 ciety and culture which foften and moderate the paflions and ac- 

 tions of men, as well as thofe of docile animals. 



Brutes, like men, learn to fee obje£ts in their proper pofition, to 

 judge of dlflances and heights, and of hurtful, pleafureable, or in- 

 different bodies. Without fome portion of reafon, therefore, they 

 could never acquire the faculty of making a proper ufe of their 

 fenfes. A dog, though preffed with hunger, will not feize a piece 

 of meat in prefence of his mafter, unlefs it be given to him : But, 

 with his eyes, his movements, and his voice, he makes the moft 

 humble and expreffive petition. If this balancing of motives be not 

 reafoning, I know not by what other name it can be called. 



Animals, recently after birth, know not how to avoid danger. 

 Neither can they make a proper ufe of their members. But expe- 

 rience 



