510 
ON MAN AS CONTRADISTINGUISHED 
ending joys which “ eye hath not seen nor ear heard, and which 
have never entered into the heart of man, namely, the things which 
God hath prepared for them that love him V’ ‘ 
Mr. Spooner, in his observations on the ‘‘ Non-immortality of 
Animals,” has, however, handled the subject in a very clear and 
convincing manner. Under his wing I would humbly and respect¬ 
fully take shelter while making a few comments upon the same 
topic: and I must here beg to observe, that, although my thoughts 
have been directed into their present channel from a perusal of Mr. 
Karkeek’s Essay, I quite disclaim any thing like entering the lists 
against so formidable a competitor. 
That animals, like ourselves, have their feelings, their wants, 
and their enjoyments—that they are susceptible of kindness and 
ill-treatment—that they are actuated by many of the gentler as also 
the fiercer passions of rational beings—cannot be doubted; but 
that, because they have a dim shadowing forth of such powers, they 
should necessarily be immortal, I cannot bring myself to believe. 
Going any length in admiration of the faithful and devoted attach¬ 
ment of the dog to the human species, I cannot yet hold with the 
Indian, who 
“ Thinks, admitted to that equal sky, 
His faithful dog shall bear him company.” 
The distinctive marks of man’s intellect and animals’ instinc¬ 
tive reasoning—the boundless yet uncertain guidance of one, the 
narrow but unerring precision of the other—are so clearly deline¬ 
ated throughout all living nature, whilst their separate provisions 
are so convincingly shewn, 
“ As fitting all to be for all most fit,” 
that I cannot shut my eyes to a line of demarcation so deeply 
marked by the finger of the Almighty . 
Reasoning at ev’ry step he treads, 
Man oft mistakes his way; 
While meaner things whom instinct leads 
Are rarely known to stray. 
COWPER. 
And this very fact, that man mistake his way, proves, to 
my mind, the unalterable difference between intellect and instinct. 
The latter is displayed in its full perfection at once. It is not pro¬ 
gressive : it does not gradually pile evidence upon evidence, and 
fact upon fact, and thence deduce from their consideration matters 
of higher knowledge and more extended capabilities. At the most, 
we but find in those quadrupeds which are domesticated a slight 
glimmering of understanding, or, more properly to speak, sagacity 
to enable them to adapt their efibrts to those casualties occasionally 
