ON THE NON-IIMMOIITALITY OF ANIMALS. 
375 
Here vve have a distinction, though not in kind but in degree, 
vet as clear and as marked as can be desired. It is the difference 
between the mountain and the mole-hill—between the Indian’s 
fragile canoe and the magnificent ship of war; the former merely 
transporting its owner over the unrippled surface of a lake; the 
latter bearing a whole race of beings in safety amidst the fury of 
opposing elements. What greater difference can we desire ? The 
reasoning faculties of animals enable them properly to perform the 
destined purpose of this world: those of man enable him to soar in 
thought above the things of time, and to endeavour to penetrate 
with his searching intellect the mysteries of futurity. 
But this brings us to, and in some measure supports, our second 
proposition,—that it is not reasonable to consider that animals are 
immortal. We do not believe they are, for two reasons:—one, 
that there would be no use in their being so; and the other, that 
their faculties are not constituted for immortality. 
Supposing that they are immortal, Avhat purpose can be gained 
by their being so I They know nothing of the previous history of 
their race; they mourn not for their parents or their kindred; they 
cannot, therefore, like man, feel any anticipated delight in meeting 
them hereafter. The horse, indeed, may miss his companion, but 
does not know that he is dead, although he may actually draw his 
carcass from the stable. Supposing that they are immortal, are 
they to exist hereafter in the body or in the spirit 1 Let us sup¬ 
pose the former case, where is the material to be found in the globe 
for creating afresh all the lions and tigers, elephants, mastodons, 
and megatherums that ever existed—to say nothing of the antelopes 
and the buffaloes innumerable, on which the former animals existed 1 
Where are these large beasts to stand 1—how are they to move ? 
—what are they to subsist on ? They themselves have, ages 
since, been converted into food for vegetables; these vegetables into 
pabula for animals; and these again, perhaps, have become food 
for man: and thus the circle has been moving round, and the 
same mass of matter, whether it be carbon or hydrogen or oxygen, 
has, probably since the creation of the world, been the food of 
hundreds of plants as well as animals, and, consequently, could 
never satisfy such numerous claimants if animals were again to ap¬ 
pear in the body. This, therefore, is out of the (juestion : it must 
be their spirits only that are meant. 
Let us suppose the spirit of a cat to be immortal—is this animal 
to possess the same faculties as before or not 1 If the former, there 
must be mice and birds to catch, or there will be nothing to excite 
and gratify the faculties; l)ut if their former propensities do not 
exist, what is there left of the mind of the animal to enjoy or even 
to possess existence ? The fact is, the wliole intellect of grimalkin 
