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is a piece of ingenious mechanism performing acts that seem lihe the faults 
of its own volition. There are two instances at the Polytechnic The 
the mechanical Leotard, which is as ingenious and elaborate a 
automatic machinery as ever was known. What - its chief attra tmn J 
Why, that it seems to do the acts of mental volition, and it constitutes, 
therefore one of the finest evidences of the skill of man in approximatmg, in 
however humble a degree, to the acts of the great God. 
ton is one that is called the neurocrypt, which, as every Greek schoi-r 
wm know, means “ the hidden nerves.” The figure of a young lady performs 
many graceful evolutions and postures, doing it all just like a living person 
Now i this paper we start from the premisses that the brute creation have 
no reason properly so called-neither the power to reason nor possession 
of a mind If they had this faculty, it would he proved by its bem = 
1;^ for, though there may be many degrees in the use of re^on wherever 
ft Lists, we know of no stagnant and inoperative gift of the Creator in 
the whole world. Whatever exists, He has caused its existence and given it 
Son. That is true of instinct and of reason. They have them separate 
departments, notwithstanding that you sometimes see curious ' “f e of 
exactly belonging to the ordinary operations of ms met on the ^ part 
animals which are brought into artificial connection with man The dog to 
instance, frequently performs acts which are automatic in a m taphy W 
sense although they seem like efforts of its own vohtion , and I understand 
Mr. Morshead to use the word automatic throughout in t at me 
sense drawing a distinction between that and the reasoning acts of reason 
brings. A dog is not able to reason in what it does, but still there are some 
striking instances of wonderful things done by the brute creation. I leme - 
her readino a singular case in a book pubUshed by Mr. Bohn ; I think i 
was “ on the curiosities of instinct.” In past days, the county of 
not so easily traversed as now ; the roads being at times reason 
of the floods that overflowed them. A traveUer on “adr h^m » ^ 
quantity of money with him, stopped in the middle o e y J 
a brook to take some lunch ; having finished his meal, he mornhd his hors 
but a favourite little dog which accompanied him made, strong protests 
against his proceeding on his journey, harking most furiously ; hut not 
succeeding by that means in being attended to, it flew at the ho . » > 
last, in its extreme anxiety to stop its master, it bit tbe orse severa n - 
The traveUer, fearing that the dog had gone mad, drew out a ^and 
shot it leaving it on the road. He then went on, and when he reach- d Ins 
usual place of stopping for the night, he found . that his bag t ^ money ^ 
crone Remembering then the instinctive efforts of his little dog to deta 
Cat fhe spot where he had rested, he rode hack te .the ^ whi£ .« 
now a long way off, and found his money-bag on the spot where h 
taken his lunch ; but upon that, bag, its hut act having been « 
fidelity to its mission, lay the dead body of the little innocent 
doer (Cheers ) In a case like that, there were three things at work m 
doL affection for its master, memory to recall the fate of the money, and 
