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Show &66 MEN r AL CONSTITUTION OF ANIMAL!. dence, is one for the production o~ origi~al, inve-ntive, and aspiring minds, which, when ctrc.umstances are not decidedly unfavorable, strike out new Jdea8 for the be~wfit of their fellow-creatures, or put upon them .a Jast.wg impress of their own superior s~ntiments .. N~hons, _Improved by these means, become In turn foct fm. the diff~sion of light over t~e adjac~nt regions of b~rbansm-thek· very passi0ns helping to th1s end,_ for nothing can be ~?~e clear than that ambitious aggressw~ has led to the ctv~hzation of many countries. Such Is the p~ocess wh~ch seems to form the destined means for bringtng mankind from the darknsss of barbarism to the day of knowledge and mechanical and social improvement. Even the no .. ble art of letters is but, as Dr. Adam Fergu~on has ~emarked, "a natural produce of the human mind, whi?h will rise spontaneously wherever me~ are happ•ly placed;" original alike amongst the anctent Egyptians and the dimly monumented T~ltecans of Y~ca~an. "Banish," says Dr. GaU, " music, po~try, painhng, sculpture, architecture, all the arts and scwn...,cPs, and let your Homers, Raphaels, Michael Angel~s, l::ilucks, ~nd Canovas be forgotten, yet let men of gentus_ o~ every d~scription spring up, and poetry, mustc, pan~hng, arcl~Itecture, sculpture, and a_ll the arts a!ld s~Ier:ces, Will acrain shine out in all their glory. Twice Within the reco~ ds of history has the human ra~e ~raversed the great circle of its entire destiny, and twtce ha!i the rudeness of barbarism been follo_wed by a higher degree of refinement. It is a great mistake to suppose one l?eople to h<l;ve proceeded from another on account of then conformt~y of manners, customs, and arts The . swallow of Par~~ builds its nest like the swallow of VIenna, but does 1. thence follow that the former sprhng from the ~atter • With the same causes we have the same effects; wtth the same orcranization we have the manifestation of the same t) powers." 1\IENTAL CONSTITUTION OF ANIMALS. IT has been one of the most agreeable tasks _of modern science to trace the wonderfully exact adaptations of the organization of animals to ~he physical circumstanres KENT .A.L CONSTIT'tJ'riON OF ANIMAl. 1. 167 !llnidst ~hich they are destined to live. From the mandit> les of Insects. to the hand of man, all is seen to be in the most harmonwus relation to the things of the outward worl~, thus clearly proving that design presided in the creatton of the whole-design again implying a designer, another word for a CREATOR. It ~ould be tiresome t~ present in this place even a selection of the proofs which have been adduced on this point. Th~ Natural Theology of Paley, and the Bridcrewater Treatises, place the subject in so clear a light, that ~.he generc:l p~stulate ~ay be ~.aken for granted. The physIcal ~onshtutwn ?f animals Is, then, to be regarded as in the mcest congrutty and. adaptation to the external world. Less clear ideas have hitherto been entertained on the ment~l c?nst~tution of animals. The very nature of this const:tutwn Is not as yet generally known or held as ascertained. There is, indeed, a notion of old standincr that the mind is in some way connected with the brai~~ but the ~etaphysicians insist that it is, in reality, know~ only by. Its ~cts or effects~ anc.l they accordingly present th~ subJect ~n a form which is unlike any other kind of science, for It does not so much as pretend to·have nature fur its basis. There is a general disinclination to recrard m~nd in connecti?n with otganization, from a fear that this ~ust needs ~n.terf~re with the cherished religious doctnne of the sptnt of man, and lower him to the level of the brutes. A distinction is therefore drawn between our mental ~n:anifestations anc.l those of th8 lower animals, the latter being comprehended under the term instinct yvhile o_urs are c.ollectively described as mind, mind be~ 1ng again a received synonyme with soul, the immortal part of man. There is here a strano·e system of confusion a_nd error,_ ~hich_ it is most imprud~nt to regard as essenhal to rel_Igwn, since _candid investigations of nature tend to show 1ts untenable~ess. There is, in reality, nothing to I? reveL t our I:egardmg man as specially endowed with an unmo tal_ spnJ~, at the same time that his ordinary mental r amfestatwns are looked upon as simple pheno~ ena e~ulting from organization, those of the lower animals .Je1ng phenomena absolutely the same in ch~ractet, though developed within n1uch narrower limits.* • • 11 rs D'" t God _the first cause of matter as well as of mind 1 D<1 not the fi_rst attnbutes of matter lie as inscrutable in the bosom of God-of 1ts first author-as those of mind 1 Has not evt:n matter · |