machines

mere, I think it a vulgar one-It is not from Voltaire's observations (although I have introduced them page 450.as being better than any thing I could say on the subject) but from my own, that I have derived this opinion-In many solitary jour neys, and in many domestic scenes, 1 have attended to the motion of those creatures-I have observed animals of the same order, differ in the measure of their memory and knowledge, in the same manner as they have differed in their tempers, colour, and formation-I have remarked that one horse will recollect the road he travelled last year, or perhaps seven years before-and another will stupidly pass it by, after a very short period

I have observed that animals distinguish the persons who are kind to them, from those who are careless or cruelhave such a sense of gratitude, as in many instances to lay down their lives for their benefactors-while we on the other hand, often bite and devour, and teize and torment one another-so that I cannot place our superiority in reason-but in the knowledge of God, and in the practice of virtue.

Men have the government of the brute creation committed to them, as in all probability the angelic have of the human-but all in subordination to an original controlling power-this in my opinion is the true distinctionThe dog communicates with his master-serves himobeys his law, and derives pleasures from his smileAngels also are appointed to animate the pious resolutions of the good man-to enlarge his knowledge-sooth his sorrows and protect him from many dangers-and the angel in return reaps a rich and inexpressibie harvest of joy, from his ability continually to do the divine with from his contemplatton of the supreme excellence-from the glorious prospect which he has of the creative and legislative works of God-his knowledge of the wisdom and perfection of the whole-his own great and benevolent nature-the sweet society of his fellow angelsand lastly from his capacity of proving instrumental, in the preservation and purification of man.

We know by experience, that human nature possesses a power of modelling and improving inferior natures, by virtue of superior powers; but this is no more a proof to me that brutes have no faculty of reason; than that because angels are concerned in the formation of the

human character, that hence the latter has no faculty capable of comprehending spiritual and invisible thingsIn fact, I think these propositions establish the contrary conclusion that is to say, (without knowledge of school argument) that as man by the force and efficacy of reason, instructs the brute creation in many things-so the brute creation by a spark of the same faculty, is capable of comprehending what he teaches-Now if it can be made appear, that a dog or a monkey in the hands of an ingenious man-may be taught to comprehend and practice, what without such instruction, he would never have comprehended or practised-is this instinct?-If it be, why has not instinct imparted to the untaught dog or monkey, the same knowledge and practices?

Again, as angels or glorified spirits, by the force and efficacy of the divine principle, may prove instrumental in the improvement and perfection of the human character-so the latter must be in possession of a spiritual faculty, to comprehend and improve by their secret, but effectual agency-or otherwise how could man be made wiser and better, by the very existence of angels or glorified spirits?

With regard to brutes, I cannot force my understanding to believe that they have no spark of reason-while I have two very common cases before my eyes-the remarkable sagacity of some animals-and the remarkable stupidity of most men-Remember I do not say some, but most-for if most men have reason, they certainly make the oddest use of it, that can be imagined-The first of these classes, take the natural and obvious methods of obtaining the end they are in pursuit of-but most men in pursuit of happiness, take every mode but the right one of obtaining it, which is that of pleasing God by the practise of his laws-these are to be found in the gospel-but who dreams of keeping these in order to be happy? And yet every one beside, however he may laugh, and sing, and dance; however he may congratulate himself upon his wealth, his power, or his friends-will miss it in the end, and be found a very fool, in spite of all his glee-Reason says, that God being all powerful, must be able,-and that being just, he must be willing, to crown all those with happiness, who labour to serve him in the way he has prescribedSense saysin order to be happy, procure to yourself all the instruments of gratification which you can obtain—and in order

to succeed in this pursuit; banish from your thoughts, all such ideas of futurity, as would render your pursuits doubtful The counsel of the last we mostly take, as leading directly to happiness-and yet after this, we will talk of the instinct of brutes, and of our own reason!

SINGULAR SAGACITY OF THE BALD COOT IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF ITS NEST.

This creature with a dexterity which would do honor to a political artist, fixes its nest in the centre of one of those heaps of reeds or rushes, which grow in lakes or stagnant waters-its nest manufactured of those reeds, is so constructed, as to rest upon the surface of the fluid, united to, and suspended from the tops of the reeds around it-thus its posture is preserved steady in all changes of the element upon which it rests-and the nest whether rising or falling with the flood, proves in the centre of storm and tempest, the sure receptacle of the little creatures who inhabit it, and whose wisdom could not have been inspired by any Being less than infinite and yet we are for denying these little oracles the faculty of reason.

Secondly, we shall attempt a description of

THE RABBIT'S NEST.

This creature when carrying its young, appears to calculate the hour of its delivery, sometime before the pang of nature has arrived this appears from the following circumstances-She carries her young about a month only-and yet some days before her delivery, she begins to prepare a nest for them, distinct both in form and situation from those of the general community Departing from the commonwealth, she searches for a secret and solitary situation, and when she has found it, she begins her new plan of operation-when I speak of a new plan, I allude to the preparations of the female rabbit for her first brood-The approach to her nest comprizes two lanes or avenues, which meet in a sort of angle, and the entrance to which, she carefully stops every night with the clay which she had ejected, after having fed her young, which she does but once in twenty-four hours.

In the remote end of the second avenue, she makes her nest-which by hay or grass inside the clay, placed as a door at the mouth of her hole--the clay is prevented from tumbling in; and thus (as well as by the angular form, or winding obliquity of her nest) the little ones are protected from any particles which might approach to annoy them.

When she finds the hour of her delivery approaching, after having previously laid a foundation of straw and litter, she strips her belly of the shaggy down which covered it, and disposes it in order upon the straw, for the reception of her little ones-and in this she appears to have a two-fold object-namely, the comfortable. lodging of her brood, and their perfect freedom of access to the fountains of nourishment, which lye disposed in two rows along her belly, and by this operation are rendered not only easy of access, but smooth and gentle to the infant mouth" If in the whole of these operations, there are not proofs of a reasoning-faculty, I must doubt the adequacy of my own reason to determine what reason is." Lastly, let us attempt a description of the

ANNUAL ASSEMBLY OF MAGPIES.

Magpies in a neighborhood assemble about March, and seem to hold a general conference, which I am informed, frequently continues for about two days They chatter, and get so angry and quarrelsome in their deliberations that like other senators, their disputes cannot be decided by fair argument-but must be ultimately determined by martial enterprize-the object of these assemblies may be, to settle their matches for the year, and to divide amongst them according to their various pretensions, a suitable portion of their neighbor's territory; for they soon after fly off and build-But are not all these transactions, so similar to our own, irrefra gable proofs of their wisdom and knowledge?

REFLECTIONS.

I do not think it unreasonable to suppose, that in some future state of things, the brute creation may rise in the scale of intelligence-I am confirmed in this sentiment, by observing as my understanding has unfolded, that every production of the earth commences in embryo, and travels on toward perfection-I have observed a like progress in the intelligence of animals of all classes; and I am persuaded, thet it is also the same in the in

visible world-A free agent, like man in a state of probation, is indeed entrusted with the awful power of travelling back to chaos, and to worse than chaos, by a vicious use of his powers-or of travelling on from one scene of knowledge and improvement to another, by the virtuous and right use of them-and as inferior creatures have suffered, and do daily suffer the pains of mortality, without having incurred its guilt; I conclude, that in the order of Providence, as a recompence of their unmerited sufferings, a yet more exalted state is in reserve for them, when the leopard shall lye down with the kid, when the wolf and the lamb shall dwell together;" and when every ass may possibly possess the facuity of speaking, as well as that of Balaam's-the true distinction, therefore in my opinion, between the human and the brute creation isnot that the one possesses reason, and the other nonebut that one is higher in the scale of intelligence than the other that the former possesses (although imperfectly in this life) a faculty of knowing, loving, and obeying its Creator; and a larger measure of that governing and conducting principle called reason; and that as the brute creation at present, suffers misery without guilt, it shall hereafter enjoy the happiness of innocence, without reaping the rewards of virtue.

ON THE ACQUIREMENT WHICH EXALTS ONE BEING ABOVE ANOTHER.

Page 7.-Mary Woolstoncraft resumes" What acquirement exalts one being above another? Virtue we spontaneously reply."

REMARKS Nothing more true-In this man's superiority to the brute creation consists, rather than in reason- The former and the latter have the same external senses-both possess reason, although not under the same law. The latter have but one law, if I may so speak the law of their nature; and this they mostly fulfil, if not prevented by some irresistible impedimentthe former appears to me to be under three laws-FirstA law of love and obedience to God, as his Creator, Preserver and Judge-Secondly-A law of justice and charity, to the common nature of which he partakes and Thirdly-A law of tenderness to the brute creation-that is such a degree of tenderness, as is consistent with reason, and his own necessities.

When the love of God is shed abroad in the heart-or in other words-When the human heart is affected with a