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COMPARISON BETWEEN 
brutes there intervenes an immense chasm, of which we can 
hardly estimate the magnitude. The functions which are purely 
vital and are necessary for even the lowest degree of sensitive 
existence, are possessed equally by all animals. In the distribu- 
tion of the faculties of mere sensation, a greater inequality may 
be perceived the intellectual faculties, again, are of a more 
refined and nobler character, and, being less essential to animal 
life, are dealt out by nature with a more sparing and partial 
hand. Between the two extremities of the scale we find an 
infinite number of intermediate degrees. The more exalted 
faculties are possessed exclusively by man, and constitute the 
source of the immense superiority he enjoys over the brute 
creation, which so frequently excels him in the perfection of sub- 
ordinate powers. In strength and swiftness he is surpassed by 
many quadrupeds. In vain may he wish for the power of flight 
possessed by the numerous inhabitants of the air. He may envy 
that range of sight which enables the bird to discern from a 
height at which it is itself invisible to our eyes the minutest 
objects on the face of the earth. He may regret the dulness of 
his own senses when he adverts to the exquisite scent of the 
hound, or the acute hearing of the bat. While the delicate per- 
ceptions of the lower animals teach them to seek the food which 
is salutary, and to avoid that which is injurious, man alone 
seems stinted in his powers of discrimination, and is compelled, 
to gather instruction from a painful and hazardous experience. 
But if nature has created him thus apparently helpless, and 
denied him those instincts with which she has so liberally fur- 
nished the rest of her offspring, it was only to confer upon him 
gifts of infinitely higher value. While in acuteness of sense he 
is surpassed by inferior animals, in the powers of intellect he 
stands unrivalled. In the fidelity and tenacity with which im- 
pressions are retained in his memory, in the facility and strength 
with which they are associated, in grasp of comprehension, in 
extent of reasoning, in capacity of progressive improvement, 
he leaves all other animals at an immeasurable distance. 
He alone enjoys in perfection the gift of utterance ; he alone is 
able to clothe his thoughts in words ; in him alone do we find 
