CLASS I. MAMMALIA: ORDER 1. BIMANA. 
39 
that a comparison is scarcely possible. The highest moral endowments of animals are shown in 
their attachment to their oflFspring; but this ceases when the period of helplessness is past, and 
there is no evidence of attachment between individuals, except in the associated labors of some 
species, and the consentaneous actions of the male and female for the safety of the offspring. The 
arts of which animals are capable are limited, and pecnliar to each species ; and there seems to be 
no evidence of a power of invention, or of construction for any purpose beyond that to which the 
original and instinctive powers are adapted. What is the vaunted village of the beaver, the most 
ingenious of quadrupeds, in comparison with a hnman city, with its ships and merchandise, its 
temples, churches, and dwellings, its libraries, and its monuments of art ! 
Li intimate connection with his exalted mental endowments is man's peculiar possession of lan- 
guage, already alluded to, the immense results of which, in the accumulating, recording, and dis- 
tributing of knoAvledge, it is scarcely possible to conceive. Other animals are naturally speechless, 
not from any material difference in the structure of their organs — for man can teach some of them 
to imitate him — but from their inability to form those associations of ideas which are essential to 
the construction and utterance of words. 
Among the monkeys, the adults exercise au- 
thority over the young, and it is said maintain it 
even by chastisement ; but there is no instance 
in which the stronger species has exercised au- 
thority over the weaker, or brought it into a state 
of servitude. Even when made the associates 
of man, and instructed by him, how little have 
animals learned ! — a few unmeaning tricks, unwil- 
lingly performed, a few words uttered and con- 
stantly repeated, without choice or a conception 
of their meaning, and sullen passive submission, 
are in general the best results that can be found. 
There is not a proof in the whole history of ani- 
mals that any species or individual has ever made 
an advance toward an improvement, or an altera- 
tion in its condition. AVhether solitary or living 
in herds, the habits of all remain the same ; all of 
the same species appear endowed with the same 
faculties and dispositions, and each is in mental 
power the same throughout its life. 
Contrast Avith these the progress of man. In 
his origin weak, naked, and defenceless, he has 
not only obtained dominion over all the animate 
creation, but the very elements are made to serve 
his purpose. Of the earth he has built his houses, 
and constructed weapons aud the implements of 
art; he uses the wind to carry him in ships and 
to prepare his food ; and when the wind will not 
suit him, he employs fire and water to replace or to 
resist it. By artificial light he has prevented the 
inconveniences of darkness ; he has stopped and 
made rivers, and has forced deserts, marshes, and 
forests alike to produce his food. He has marked 
out and measured the course of the celestial 
bodies, till he has discovered from them the size and form of the earth that he himself inhabits. 
And besides all this, man extends his views beyond this hfe. He knows and anticipates death, 
and instructed alike by the inductions of Reason and the teachings of a divine revelation, he, and 
he alone, aspires to Lu mortality. 
