Reason and Instinct. 5455 



2. The second passage, to us, engaged in the inquiry we are 

 urging, is less instructive still. In the Septuagint there is no word of 

 "perish:" it is simply, " Man being in honour has no understanding; 

 has been compared to the sense-wanting beasts" (toi$ htwivi toi$ 

 avoriTot;, i. e. beasts that have no good sense or reason to govern and 

 restrain their appetites and passions ; dvovrog as opposed to auxpguv). 

 For if we urge this epithet to its extreme sense, — take it quite 

 literally, — it will prove a great deal too much, viz. that no brute, 

 under any circumstances, possesses intelligence, or sense, or reason ; 

 which is contrary to fact. 



3. This passage simply states that " horse and mule have no under- 

 standing" (ol$ dux sari ai/vs<n$), which, again, if we take it literally or 

 precisely, establishes too much ; as the intelligence, the docility of 

 this or that brute are proverbs, and not only so, but are often 

 adverted to in the Bible itself, as, for instance, "The ox knoweth his 

 owner and the ass his master's crib ; but Israel doth not know, my 

 people doth not consider" (Isaiah i. 3); where, from the antithetical 

 nature of the verse, the intelligence of the ox and ass are much more 

 than merely inferred or hinted at. The passage now before us 

 reminds man of his vast, his immeasurable superiority, in point of 

 reason and understanding and good sense, by the proper use of which 

 he may restrain and rule himself, over the brutes, and bids him act 

 accordingly, — walk worthily of his superior gifts ; but does not deny 

 to the brutes the possession of that which, although it may be only 

 such as not to render unnecessary restraints imposed by others, is 

 still notoriously theirs. 



4 and 5. Remarks of a precisely similar character may be made 

 with respect to each of these two passages. If they prove anything 

 in our inquiry they prove too much. If the brute creation, — for 

 St. Jude's words reach to this extent, — be ahoyov, in the full sense of 

 the word, that is, devoid of reason or understanding, there is no 

 exception to the rule : all beasts are equally understandingless, 

 which is a conclusion simply absurd. 



We come now to a passage of a different character: "For the 

 earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of 

 the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not 

 willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, 

 because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of 

 corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we 

 know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together 

 until now" (Rom. viii. 19 — 2*2). Indeed, this quotation seems to me 



