OF NATURAL HISTORY. 43^ 



CHAPTER XVII, 



Of the Docility of AnmaU, 



OF all animals capable of culture, man is the moft dudile. By 

 inftrudion, imitation, and habit, his mind may be moulded 

 into any form. It may be exalted by fcience and art to a degree of 

 knowledge, of which the vulgar and uninformed have not the moft 

 diftant conception. The reverfe is melancholy. When the humaa 

 mind is left to its own operations, and deprived of almoft every op- 

 portunity of fecial information, it finks fo low, that it is nearly ri- 

 valed by the moft fagacious brutes. The natural fuperiority of man 

 over the other animals, as formerly remarked, is a neceflary refult 

 of the great number of inftinds with which his mind is endowed. 

 Thefe inftinds are gradually unfolded, and produce, after a mature 

 age, reafon, abftra£tion, invention, fcience. To confirm this truth, 

 it would be fruitlefs to have recourfe to metaphyfical arguments, 

 which generally miflead and bewilder human reafon. A diligent at- 

 tention to the acflual operations of Nature is fufficient to convince 

 any mind that is not warped and deceived by popular prejudice, the 

 fetters of authorities, as they are called, whether ancient or modern, 

 or by the vanity of fupporting preconceived opinions and favourite 

 theories. Let any man refledt on the progrefs of children from birth 



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