132 TRANSACTIONS OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
instances able to utter words, yet do not understand them, and 
are incapable of carrying on a conversation. He imagines that 
since they are endowed with many organs analogous to ours, 
they could as easily communicate their thoughts to us as to 
their fellows; but he apparently does not attempt to draw any 
distinction between instinct and reason. I should imagine from 
this that he had not paid much attention to the habits of animals, 
more especially such animals as dogs, whose acts are undoubtedly 
guided by reason in many instances. 
He advocated a practical rather than a speculative Philosophy, 
and considered that by studying the laws of physics we might 
be able to turn the forces of Nature to greater uses, and so 
render ourselves the lords and possessors of Nature, thus antici- 
pating many of the discoveries which have since been made, 
such as the uses of steam, electricity, and the like. 
Thus he says, " This is a result to be desired, not only in order 
to the invention of an infinity of arts by which we might be 
enabled to enjoy without any trouble the fruits of the earth and 
all its comforts, but also and especially for the preservation of 
health, which is without doubt, of all the blessings of this life, 
the first and fundamental one ; for the mind is so intimately 
dependent upon the condition and relation of the organs of the 
body, that if any means can ever be found to render men wiser 
and more ingenious than hitherto, I believe that it is in medicine 
they must be sought for." He thought that if we had such 
ample knowledge of the causes of the diseases which afflict us, and 
of the remedies provided by Nature, we could free ourselves from 
an infinity of maladies of body as well as of mind, perhaps also 
from the debility of age. In his time very little was known of 
the true causes of diseases, and very little, except empirically, 
of the remedies for them. 
It has been said that all the thoughts of men, from the be- 
ginning of the world until now, are linked together into one 
great chain. Huxley says that the thoughts of men seem rather 
comparable to the leaves, flowers, and fruit upon the innumerable 
branches of a few great stems, fed by commingled and hidden 
roots, and that these stems bear the names of a few men endowed 
with intellects of heroic force and clearness. So that, no matter 
what point in the world of thought is taken up, the history of it 
is sure to bring us back to one of these central stems. He thinks 
