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Show 26 INTRODUCTION. The modificati.O ns experi.e nced b y t h e me dullary masses leave impressions there w lu .c } 1 arc rcp1.o duced ' and thus re- . . h" · mory a corporea1 cal to the mind Images and Ideas; t IS lS me ' h 1 h f faculty that varies greatly, according to the age and eat o the animal. · d t the same Similar ideas, or such as have been acqmre .a Th time recal each other; this is the association of zde~s. e o,r de'r , extent and quickness of t h"I S assoc·l a f Io n constitute perfection of memory. . . r Every object presents itself to the memory With all Its qua I· ties or with all its accessary ideas. Intelligence has the power of separating these acc.essa:y I" d eas of ob "~ ec t s, an d of combining those . that are ah. ke Ill several different objects under a general z~ea; the obJect ~f which no where really exists, nor presents Itself per se-thls is abstraction. . Every sensation being more or less agreeable or disagree· able, experience and repeated essays soon sho':" what move~ ments are required to procure the one and av01d ~he other, and with respect to this, the intelligence abstracts Itself from the general rules to direct the will. An agreeable sensation being liable to cons~quences that are not so and vice versa, the subsequent sensat10ns become asso· ciated with the idea of the primitive one, and modify the general rules framed by intelligence-this is prud~nce. From the application of these rules to general Ideas, result certain formu1re, which are afterwards easily adapted to par· ticular cases-this is called reasoning. A lively remembrance of primitive and associated sensations, and of the impressions of pleasure or pain that belong to them, constitutes imagination. One privileged being, MAN, has the faculty of associating his general ideas with particular images more or less arbitrary, easily impressed upon the memory, and which serve to recal the general ideas they represent. These associated images are styled signs; their assemblage is a language. When the language is composed of images that relate to the sense. of hearing or of sounds, it is termed speech, and when relatiVe INTRODUCTION, 27 to that of sight, hieroglyjJhics. 1fl1·iting is a suite of images that relates to the sense of sight, by which we represent the dem~ntary sounds; and b)~ com hining them, all the images ~e~at1ve to the sense of h~armg of which speech is composed; It IS therefore only a mediate representation of ideas. This faculty of representing general ideas by particular signs or images associated with them, enables us to retain distinctly, and to remember without embarrassment, an immense number; and furnishes to the reasoning faculty and the imagination innumerable materials, and to individuals means of communication, which cause the whole species to participate in the experience of each individual, so that no bounds seem to be placed to the acquisition of knowledge· it is the distinguishing character of human intelligence. ' Although, with respect to the intellectual faculties, the most perfect animals are infinitely beneath man; it is certain that their intelligence performs operations of the same kind. They , move in consequence of sensations received, are susceptible of durable affections, and acquire by experience a certain knowledge of t~ings, by which they are governed independently of actual pam or pleasure, and by the simple foresight of consequences. When domesticated, they feel their subordination, know that the being who punishes them may refrain from so doing if he will, and when sensible of having done wrong or b.ehold him ang:y, they assume a suppliant and depreca:ing ~1r. In the society of man they become either corrupted or Improved, and are susceptible of emulation and jealousy: they have among themselves a natural language, which it is true . ' ' Is merely the expression of their momentary sensations, but man teaches ~hem to understand another, much more complicated, by whiCh he makes known to them his will, and causes them to execute it. To sum up all, we perceive in the higher animals a certain degree of reason, with all its consequences, good and bad and which appears to be about the same as that of children er: they have learned to speak. The lower we descend from man the Weaker these faculties become, and at the bottom of the scale we find them reduced to signs (at times equivocal) of sensibi- |