not render him worthy of that immortality which is the object of our hopes, nor fufceptive of it's glories. Animals kept in fuch fubjection and restraint, liable to ill-treatment and mifery from their earliest days, fcared by the brutality of man, and not permitted to hold friendly intercourfe, or learn to understand his meaning by gentle methods, become in a few generations fo ftupid and indifferent, that they attend to nothing but the mere calls of nature, and regard only the fevereft menaces and the harfleft of treatment. But there is reafon to believe that, were they treated with humanity, and with as much reafon as we can fuppofe them capable of, were we purpofely to try to make them by gentle ufage as intelligent as we could, they would far furpafs in perception and in action what we now think them capable of. That animals habituated to human fociety, are by means of that intercourfe more rational than their fellows of the wood, is univerfally apparent; and, for that reafon, why fhould we not fuppofe them capable of ftill higher intelligence, in proportion to the gentleness and rationality with which we might treat them; efpecially as we fee that, among thofe who are enrolled in the lift of civilized and domeftic animals, fuch are the most cunning and obfervant as are used with the greatest tenderness and reafon? We know not, therefore, of what refinement the animal faculty of thinking is in general capable, If it were carefully cultivated in an animal naturally acute, as a dog or horfe, it would probably far exceed what we have now an idea of. Moft people have feen fuch furprizing inftances of fagacity in thefe animals as they could not have before imagined or perhaps credited. So closely imitative, then, of man's is the animal reafon, that it is difficult, and, I had almoft faid, unphilofophical, to fuppofe that the fuperior de gree of foul is to be immortal, and the inferior, though of the fame kind and nature, to perish and be annihilated, But that brute animals are fufceptive of that fpecies of future happiness which is the object of our ambition, or that they are qualified to behave in fuch a manner as to be worthy of it, is an opinion that none but a madman could maintain. The intentions of Divine Wisdom in the defignation of many animals, are dark and infcrutable. Man is too apt to fet himfelf up as the only grand object of the creation, to whom all things were to be fubject, for whom alone the stars fhine, and the earth pours forth her increase: whereas, philofophy teaches us that numberless worlds are reciprocally benefited by these apparent points, without particular regard to this individual planet; and that hofts of animals, for whom we have not even names, profit equally with ourfelves by the gracious fertility of earth and heaven. It is prefumption, therefore, to say, This animal fhall exift for ever, and that fhall be annihilated;' seeing both are of the fame texture, as well the organs of thinking as of acting; and if either are to rife again, and live for ever, the whole glory is to be afcribed to the Almighty Fountain ofexistence. If animals are to exift in a future ftate, it is perhaps impoffible for us to determine or conjecture their condition. They are, as far as we can obferve, governed by no laws, excepting fuch as relate to the prefervation of the fpecies, and therefore we cannot conceive them morally accountable. But if they are to exift again, it by no means follows that they are to be fubjects of reward and punishment. We are not to affimilate the term and condition of every being to our own. They may, for aught we know, be in a future ftate made fubfervient to the unfearchable purposes of Omnipotent Providence, in fome way which our finite comprehenfions cannot imagine. Let us, then, treat thefe humble partakers of our existence, who enjoy their being under the fame merciful and gracious Power as ourselves, with confideration becoming our brethren of the duft, and alleviators of the burden of life. Let us confider that they have feeling and reflection as well as ourfelves; and that cruelty of all kinds must be difpleafing to God, as it is difgraceful to our nature. Having mentioned, in a former part of this eflay, the inferiority of a dog to a man, as to the refinement of his faculty of thinking, I think it just to affert his fuperiority to man, in qualities which, even amongst men, are efteemed moft laudable and amiable. Vigilance, fidelity, and gratitude,pervade the whole fpecies: no ill ufage or barbarity, however unprovoked, can extinguish thofe fenfations; and they fet an admirable example of imi tation to their oppreffors, in their unfhaken perfeverance. No poverty or diftrefs drives from his hapless mater the follower of his broken fortunes; no profpect, nor hope of better living, feduces him from his fervice: he is bound to him by a fecret tie, as fine and as noble as any imaginable motive of human reafon; for he difdains better food, and better fervice; and, in remembrance of the kind and gentle treatment of his once happier protector, he adheres to his perfon in thankful filence, partakes of his laft cruft, and weathers out in his fociety the pitilefs ftorms of woe and indigence! W REVIEW AND GUARDIAN OF LITERATURE. NOVEMBER ART. I. Differtations Moral and Critical. On Memory and Imagination on Dreaming-the Theory of Language-on Fable and Romance-on the Attachments of Kindred-Illuftrations on Sublimity. By James Beattie, LL. D. Profeffor of Moral Philofophy and Logick in the Marifchal College and University of Aberdeen; and Member of the Zealand Society of Arts and Sciences. 4to. 18s. Cadell. THESE differtations were originally compofed in a different form; being part of a courfe of prelections, read to thofe young gentlemen whom it is Dr. Beattie's bufinefs to initiate in the elements of moral fcience. This, the author hopes, will account for the plainnefs of his ftile; for the frequent introduction of practical and ferious obfervations; for a more general ufe of the pronouns I and you than is perhaps quite proper in discourses addreffed to the public; and for a greater variety of ilJuftration, than would have been requifite, if his hearers had been of riper years, or more accustomed to abstract inquiry, 1783. Dr. Beattie has been defired to publifh his whole fyftem of Lectures; but he thinks (we know not why) that fuch a work would be too voluminous for his ability to perform, and for the patience of the public to endure. He has, therefore, only given a few detached paffages; and begs they may be confidered as feparate and diftin&t effays on the feveral fubjects mentioned in the title. To fpeak generally of this work, it certainly contains a large fund of knowledge and information for youthful minds; occafionally blended, however, with fuch unphilofophical and puerile remarks, as feem to us by no means likely to add to the literary reputation of the really learned and ingenious author. Whether the powerful importunities of friends, or the perhaps ftill more powerful ones of bookfellers, gave birth to the publication of these and certain other northern Lectures which have already come under our confideration, we are not qualified to decide; but certain it is, that whatever pecuniary advantage the learn ed profeffors may have acquired on thefe occafions, their literary fame has Thucydides, in his account of the plague at Athens, relates, that fome perfons furvived that dreadful disease, with fuch a total lofs of memory, that they forgot their friends, themselves, and every thing elfe. I have read of a perfon, who, falling from the top of a house, forgot all his acquaintance, and even the faces of his own family; and of a learned author, who, on receiving a blow on the head by a folio dropping from its fhelf, loft all his learning, and was obliged to ftudy the alphabet a fecond time. There goes a ftory of another great fcholar, who, by a like accident, was deprived, not of all his learning, but only of his Greek. One may queftion fome of thefe facts; but what follows is certainly true. I know a clergyman,who, upon recovering from a fit of apoplexy about fixteen years ago*, was found to have forgotten all the transactions of the four years immediately preceding; but remembered, as well as ever, what had happened before that period. The newspapers of the time were then a great amusement to him; for almost every thing he found in them was matter of furprize; and, during the period I speak of, fome very important events had taken place, particularly the acceffion of his prefent majefty, and many of the victories of the laft war. By degrees he recovered what he had loft; partly by the fpontaneous revival of his memory, and partly by information. He is ftill alive, though old and infirm; and as intelligent as people of his age commonly are.' II. Here • That is likely to be long remembered which, at its first appearance, affects the mind with a lively fenfation, or with fome pleasureable or painful feeling. Thus we remember more exactly what we have seen than what we have only heard of; and that which awakened any powerful emotion, as joy, forrow, wonder, furprize, love, indignation, than that which we beheld with indifference. we difcern the reafon of a cruel piece of policy, which is faid to be practifed in fome communities, and was once, I believe, in this; that of going round the lands once a year, and, at every land-mark, fcourging one or two boys, who were taken along for that purpose: for it was prefumed that thofe boys could never forget the places where they had fuffered pain; and would of course be able, when grown up, or grown old, to give teftimony concerning the boundaries, if any dif pute fhould arife on that fubject.' III. We find that whelps, as well as children, once burned, avoid the fire; and that horses, oxen, and dogs, and many other animals, not only have their knowledge of nature enlarged by experience, but also derive from man various arts and habits, whereby they become ufeful to him in war, hunting, agriculture, and other employments. Moft of thefe creatures know their fellows and keepers; nay, dogs and horfes learn to do certain things on hearing certain words articulated: beagles obey the voice of the hunter, and purfue, or defift from purfuit, as he commands; and the warhorfe is acquainted not only with the voiceof his rider,butalfowith the summonsofthe drum and trumpet; as hunting-courfers are with the opening of the hounds and the found of the horn, Goats, fheep, and oxen, and even poultry, of their own accord, repair * * It was, I think, in the year 1761.) in the evening to their homes: parrots acquire the habit of uttering words; and finging-birds of modulating tunes; and bees, after an excurfion of feveral miles, (as naturalifts affirm) return each to her hive; nor does it appear that they mistake another for their own, even where many are flanding contiguous. Lions fpare him who attends them, when they would tear in pieces every thing elfe; doves fly to the window where they have been fed; and the elephant is faid to poffefs a degree of remembrance not many removes from rationality. I might mention, too, the dog of Ulyffes, who knew his master after twenty years abfence; (for the ftory is probable, though it may not be true) as well as what is recorded in Aulus Gellius of Androclus and his liont, who, having received mutual civilities from each other in the defarts of Africa, renewed their acquaintance when they met in the Circus at Rome, and were infeparable companions ever after. That the inhabitants of the water have memory we cannot doubt, if we believe what Pliny, in his Natural Hiftory, Bernier, in his account of Indoftan, and Martial, in some of his epigrams, have mentioned of fifhes kept in ponds that had learned to appear, in order to be fed, when called by their refpective names. Whether fhell-fifhes, and fnails, and worms, and other torpid animals, have at any time given figns of memory, I am not able to determine. In fome particulars requifite to the prefervation of brutes, inftinct feems to fuperfede the neceffity of remembrance. Young bees, on the first trial, extract honey from flowers, and fashion their combs as fkilfully as the oldeft; and the fame thing may be remarked of birds building their nefts; and of brute animals, in general, adopting, when full grown, the voice and the manner of life which Nature has appro. priated to the species. Some late authors pretend that birds learn to fing I from their parents; and that a lark, for example, which had never heard the lark's fong, would never fing it: but this I cannot admit, because my experience leads to a different conclufion; though I allow that many animals have the power of imitating, by their voice, thofe of another fpecies. If this theory be juft, then a bird gets it's note as a man does his mother-tongue, by hearing it; and, therefore, the fongs of individual birds will be as various nearly as the languages of individual men: fo that the larks of France would have one fort of note, thofe of Italy another, and thofe of England a third. would as foon believe that a dog, which had never heard any other voice than that of a man, or of a swine, would not bark, but fpeak or grunt. Man is taught by experience what is fit to be eaten or to be drank; but brutes feem to know this by in inc. The mariner, who lands in a defart ifland, is cautious of tafting fuch unknown fruits as are not marked by the pecking of birds: dogs and other animals may be poifoned by the fuperior craft of men; but leave them to themselves, and they are seldom in danger of taking what is hurtful, though they fometimes fuffer from fwallowing too much of what is good; and fome of thefe creatures, when their health is difordered, are directed by inftin&t to the proper medicine. Without memory, brutes would be incapable of difcipline; and fo their ftrength, fagacity, and fwiftnefs, would be in a great measure unferviceable to man: nor would their natural inftincts guard them fufficiently against the dangers they are expofed to from one another, and from things inanimate. Memory is alfo to them, as to us, a fource of pleafure; for to this, in part, muft be owing the fatisfaction that many of them take in the company of their fellows, in the friendship of man, and in the care of their offspring; of which laft, how ever, their love and remembrance last Hom. Odyff, xvii. 300, †A. Gellius, v. 14. ‡ Plin. Hift, x 89. Martial, iv. 30. x. 30.2 no longer than is neceffary to the prefervation of the young. But fuch joys as we derive from the idea of danger efcaped, of oppofition vanquifhed, or of pleasure formerly poffeffed, feem peculiar to rational nature, and not within the sphere of the inferior creation; for to produce them, not only memory, but alfo confcioufnefs and recollection, are neceffary. Brutes are engroffed, chiefly or only, with what is prefent; their memory being rather a neceffary and inftantaneous fuggeftion than a continued or voluntary act: for the forrow that a dog feels for the lofs of his mafter, a cow for that of her calf, and a horfe for that of his companion, is nothing more, perhaps, (though it may continue for fome time) than an uneafinefs arifing from the fenfe of a prefent want. We can hardly fuppofe that any thing then paffes in the animal fimilar to what we experience when we revolve the idea of a departed friend: in a word, I do not find fufficient ground to believe that they are capable of recollection, or active remembrance; for this implies the faculty of attending to, and arranging, the thoughts of one's own mind; a power which, as was formerly remarked, the brutes have either not at all, or very imperfectly. Yet let me not be quite pofitive in this affirmation. Some of the more fagacious animals, as horfes, dogs, foxes, and elephants, have occafionally displayed a power of contrivance which would jeem to require reflection, and a more perfect ufe of memory than I have hitherto allowed that they poffefs. When a rider has fallen from his horfe in a deep river, there have been inftances of that noble creature taking hold with his teeth, and dragging him alive to land by the fkirts of the coat. And let me here, for the honour of another noble creature, mention a fact which was never before recorded, and which happened not many years ago within a few miles of Aberdeen. As a gentleman was walking across the Ďee, when it was frozen, the ice gave way in the middle of the river, and down he funk; but kept himself from being carried away in the current by grafping his gun, which had fallen athwart the opening. A dog, who attended him, after many fruitless attempts to rescue his master, ran to a neighbouring village, and took hold of the coat of the first person he met. The man was alarmed, and would have difengaged himself; but the dog regarded him with a look fo kind and fo fignificant, and endeavoured to pull him along with fo gentle a violence, that he began to think there might be fomething extraordinary in the cafe, and suffered himself to be conducted by the animal, who brought him to his mafter in time to fave his life*. Was there not here both memory and recollection guided by experience, and by what in a human creature we should not fcruple to call good-fenfe? No; rather let us fay that here was an interpofition of Heaven; who, having thought fit to employ the animal as an inftrument of this deliverance, was pleafed to qualify him for it by a fupernatural impulfe. Here, certainly, was an event fo uncommon, that from the known qualities of a dog no perfon would have expected it; and I know not whether this animal ever gave proof of extraordinary fagacity in any other inftance. It is faid by Ariftotle, and generally believed, that brute animals dream. Lucretius describes thofe imperfect attempts at barking and running which dogs are obferved to make in their fleep, and fuppofes, agreeably to the common opinion, that they are the effects of dreaming, and that the animal then imagines him * The person thus preferved,whose name was Irvine, died about the year 1778. His story has been much talked of in the neighbourhood. I give it as it was told by himself to a relation of his, a gentleman of honour and learning, and my particular friend; from whom I had it, and who read and approved of this account before it went to press.' felf |