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THE CABINET OF NATURAL HISTORY 



do not carry an immediate regard to the subsistence of her- 

 self or her species, she is a very idiot." 



A similar incongruity, incompatible with the rational ex- 

 ercise of the intellectual principle of foresight, upon the 

 supposition of that principle being proper to the mind of 

 the creature, is exhibited by the Hamster Rat, [Miis Cri- 

 cetiis.) The principle of foresight, as exhibited in this 

 animal, who lays up food, " not for his winter's support, 

 (since during that season he always sleeps,) but for his nour- 

 ishment previously to the commencement, and after the 

 conclusion of his state of torpidity," cannot be considered 

 as a principle of which he has any consciousness whatever; 

 for had the Hamster a conscious perception and apprecia- 

 tion of such a principle, he would be led to apply it in other 

 cases, as well as in that of storing up food for the preserva- 

 tion of his life; but as if to demonstrate the irrationality of 

 the animal, he attacks, with blind fury, the largest quadru- 

 ped that comes in his way; instead of seeking safety by 

 flight, like most other creatures in whom the principle of 

 caution is observable; and which a rational foresight would 

 necessarily impel him to, when menaced with destruction 

 by a gigantic adversary. 



The Arctic Fox, as Crantz relates, enters the water and 

 splashes with his foot to bring up the fish, which he then 

 seizes; and the Greenland women, profiting by his example, 

 employ with success a similar artifice: the Fox surely does 

 not reflect either upon the act or the means, as the women 

 must do; in him the act is evidently spontaneous, and does 

 not flow from any thought, of which analysis is predicable. 

 The limitation of the brute mind, and its exclusion from 

 intellectual consciousness, or proper reflection, is also appa- 

 rent in the inutility of speech to such animals as can be 

 taught to articulate, in efi'ecting any thing beyond imitation; 

 evincing, clearly, the incommunicability of the power of 

 reason to the creature; — while, at the same time, it illus- 

 trates the power of the influence of the human mind, as 

 exerted upon the mind and faculties of the animal, and ascer- 

 tains the limit of that influence. There can be no reason- 

 ing without reflection, no reflection without intellectual 

 freedom: if this reflection and this freedom were the attri- 

 bute of the brute, — how, I ask, should we deny him a share 

 of human consciousness. Does this consciousness, in kind, 

 exist in the brute mind? and are they endowed with it for 

 no other purpose than to produce, — what it could not fail to 

 produce, — the sensible perception of their own individual 

 degradation ? — or, would it not follow, upon such an admis- 

 sion of the rationality of brutes, that we should be very 

 likely to see the fable realized of the Mice holding a coun- 

 cil to " bell the Cat," and absolutely devising a successful 

 stratagem to efiect their purpose? Is there, upon such a 

 principle, any ground for asserting, that, with proper care, 

 we might not be able to rear a few four-legged philosophers 



and mechanicians, of at least tolerable erudition and science? 

 or rather, the principle being admitted, can it be safely de- 

 nied that they do not already exist? 



I am aware that there is a class of actions which are, in 

 great measure, modifications arising from the influence of 

 education and habit, and which, perhaps, appear more 

 strongly than any others, to favour the supposition that 

 brutes are possessed, in some degree, of the power of analy- 

 sis and reason; but as this appearance is of so prominent a 

 character, and is so closely allied to their specific mental 

 capabilities, I purpose to enter upon a more particular con- 

 sideration of it in the course of these essays. I shall only 

 remark, for the present, that the natures of brutes no doubt 

 evince a strong susceptibility of being influenced, within cer- 

 tain limits, by the human mind; but this susceptibility of 

 subservience to human intelligence, so far from militating 

 against the views here ofiered of the proper nature of brutes, 

 appears rather to strengthen and confirm the position, that 

 they are affected by influences above their own conscious- 

 ness; and that the wisdom of the Creator has so constituted 

 their natures, as to be afiected by the influence of mediate 

 agencies, in order to the production of the various ends which 

 it may be necessary should be accomplished through their 

 instrumentality. 



I need scarcely remark that the general views attempted 

 to be established by the foregoing observations, cannot be 

 adequately illustrated in the limited survey of a Preliminary 

 Essay: — their further development must rest upon a more 

 extended examination of the particular functions, which, 

 taken collectively, form the brute economy. Certain it is, 

 however, that the liberty and freedom of the human mind 

 forms the basis of its rationality and intelligence, which is 

 no doubt aided by an influent light and perception received 

 from the source of all Being; the consciousness of which 

 influence connects him more immediately with that Source; 

 — and that the absence of freedom in the brute mind, in 

 this respect forms the basis of its irrationality, and demon- 

 strates that the influent light and perception which gives 

 birth to the surprising actions we see animals perform, forms 

 no part of their conscious nature. Thus brutes are evidently 

 connected with the Author of Creation, though in a manner 

 more remote than man. 



The freedom of man consists in his being able to take a 

 survey from an eminence, as it were, of the various discri- 

 minations which he himself efiects, and which, by various 

 agencies, are efiected throughout lower existence; hence, 

 although man possesses a lower or animal mind, similar, as 

 considered distinctly and by itself, to the brute mind, and 

 which inferior mind or region he looks down upon from an 

 intellectual eminence, it is evident that his consciousness 

 respecting even the things of this inferior region is illumin- 

 ed, by the glorious light of intellect and rationality which 



