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rapidity to and witli which such views, when first promulgated, 
found acceptance, does it not require some exercise on our 
part to bear the circumstance in mind that we really are now 
speaking of bygone times ? 
For myself I feel repelled by the philosophy of life thus 
presented, in a degree only less than by that first alluded to 
in these remarks. True, the later theories, like the older, 
are unsupported by evidence, such as, to quote a very high 
forensic authority, would be accepted in a court of law on a 
question of fact ; * but they are even now being unearthed 
after a century's consignment to the tomb, and once again 
find acceptance by what is called the “ intellectual world." 
Is it really the case that reasonable and reasoning man is 
expected humbly to grasp at such doctrines as are expressed 
above, culminating in a denial to sentient animals under the 
lash of a tyrant no sentience beyond that of a plant under the 
stimulus of light ? If it be so, rather than receive them, I 
would commend to the notice of proselytes of the doctrine in 
question the sentiment expressed by a recent writer in the 
Revue des Deux Mondes, namely, that “ Le plus je connais des 
hommes, le plus j'aime le chien." 
17. In 1796 the views thus expressed were proclaimed afresh 
by a popular scientist of that date. The creed then taught 
and enthusiastically accepted was none other than that “ there 
is but one animal, fnot many," a doctrine emphasised by learned 
professors, and, like those just now mentioned, greedily 
accepted by some willing votaries at the present day. In 
reference to this theory it has been reasoned thus,t — If the 
properties of organised tissues depend upon their organic 
structure, or, in other words, upon the nature and disposition 
of their component molecules ; if, again, every organism differs 
only in degree from every other ; if these organisms are all 
acted upon by the same natural forces, it follows that the 
actions of all animated beings must be similar in kind,- — as 
similar, in truth, as in their organic structure. Mark the 
if, if, if ; mark also the conclusion drawn from assumption 
as if it were reality. But that it is a reality remains un- 
demonstrated. 
18. According to a recognised authority on such subjects, — 
“ Nature presents us in the different classes of animals with 
nearly all possible combination of organs, and in all pro- 
* Fortnightly Review, Feb. 1, 1882. 
t Races of Man , by R. Knox, p. 477. See also Geoffroy St. Hilaire, 
quoted in Critique on the Criticism of the Simplicity of Life , by R. 
Richardson, p. 13. 
