except as the consequence of the possession of higher faculties, which would give evidence of their presence in the actions and habits of the animal.

313. By the rule that there is nothing in the constitution of man which has not been dimly symbolized in the structure of the lower animal orders, we may grant to some of the domesticated animals-to the dog, the horse, the elephant—a shadowy sensibility to moral sentiments-a consciousness of good and of its contrary, just enough to bring them within the penumbra of the moral system. But this is the utmost that can be alleged on this ground; and, therefore, it is safe to affirm concerning these countless millions of conscious beings that to them the field of their existence is an Eden: they sport their day, unknowing as to evil; they are exempt from dark surmisings, from gloomy forebodings, from terrors of the imagination, from heartachings, from remorses, from jealousy, from harbored malice, from the torments of baffled ambition, from the sense of humiliation; they know nothing of the gangrene of pride; they sustain not the listless consciousness of life without a purpose, or the weary sense of life overweighted with labor and care.

314. To the animal orders, the future, in its forms either of hope or of fear, has no existence; to them the forecasting of the future is a germ only, serving to vitalize certain conservative instincts. Nor can the past be more than a residual fragmentary element, mingling itself, without product, with the consciousness of the present moment.

315. Such as these, then, so far as probable conjecture, following the indications of palpable facts,

may lead us-such as these are the conditions under which life, with its faculties of enjoyment, has been granted to innumerable species, through countless cycles of duration. This, or nearly such, for we can not here greatly err, is that idea of good which gives law to the creation. A higher idea, and we must admit it to be higher, namely, that of intellectual development and a moral system, is the rare and the recent exceptive instance.

316. Leaving, then, this exceptive instance to be considered on other grounds, and to be brought within range of principles which physical science can never supply, we are free—and, perhaps, we may do so in a more ample and distinct manner than heretofore-to rest upon the tranquil conception of a scheme of existence, the length and breadth, the height and depth of which surpass all powers of thought, but throughout which GOOD prevails; upon which EVIL makes no inroad, and upon which organic pain glances only for an instant.

317. With such a scheme neighboring upon us, it can not be well to leave it out of our account when our purpose is to explore the WORLD OF MIND.

NOTE.-Comparative Physiology, in its present state of advancement and expansion, is rich in instances confirming and illustrating what has been advanced in this section. A volume would soon be filled with such illustrations; but to adduce them in this place would too long interrupt our pursuit of that which more directly belongs to the purpose of this elementary book. In a supplementary section, some facts gathered from this field, and which are peculiarly significant in relation to our subject, will be brought together.

X.

RUDIMENTS OF MIND.

318. In any case when we are in search of what we believe to be rudimental in the constitution of things, two courses are before us. The first of these might be called the chronological path; for instance, we may seek for that which gives the earliest indication of its presence among the several constituents that are in question. The second path is that of analysis; and the result we are seeking for will be that one element which, in the most absolute manner, defies our endeavors to give expression to it in descriptive terms, or to speak of it otherwise than by substituting one name for it instead of another.

319. Taking, then, the first-named of these two courses, we ask, Among those elements that are assumed to be the distinguishing characteristics of animal life as compared with vegetable life, which of them is the earliest dated? In seeking an answer, we should be careful to avoid whatever belongs to animal physiology, and, therefore, we leave to the physiologist the history of the embryo; but this fact we are entitled to receive from him—a fact which he must leave just as he finds it, unexplained-namely, the manifestation of individual life in the embryo long before the animal has conversed with the outer world by the eye, or the ear, or other senses.

320. Very properly, we decline to enter upon a sub

ject so occult as this, but yet it may be affirmed that muscular movement, differing essentially from any movements that are observable in the vegetable world, precedes sensation, unless it be some undefined consciousness that is earlier dated than parturition.

321. In this way, the animal, before its entrance upon the world, declares itself to live, and it lays claim to its individuality long before it has concerned itself with the things of the world. This, then, is the reply to our inquiry as to the first rudiment of mind, if we seek it on the chronological path.

322. The result is the same if we pursue inquiry on the path of analysis. Sensation is composite; it is the product of two or more forces from without, acting upon an organization that is complicated in its structure. There are five, six, or more kinds of sensation; and when these are compared-any one of them with any other, or when, in turn, we compare one with all the others—we find room for distinctions and for descriptive statements. In sensation more is implied than a simple and single rudiment. Certainly there is more than there is in that which we are intending to name as indeed the first rudiment of mind, namely, POWER or Force, as related to the masses of the material world.

323. Again we refrain from that which belongs to animal physiology, and, therefore, make no inquiry concerning a nervous system, or that muscular apparatus through which animal movement is effected. MIND has no consciousness of nerves or of muscles: volition is a purely rudimental fact, having respect to nothing but the mental intention which is realized at the in

stant when it takes place; how realized the mind neither knows nor cares, but the physiologist may discover if he can.

324. At this point there stands before us an instance very proper for showing the independence and the separate departments of mental science and animal physiology. When the physiologist has told us every thing that he knows concerning those sensations which give rise to the volition, and then concerning the conveyance of these, by one set of nerves, to the sensorium, and then the conveyance of—he knows not what-by another system of nerves, to the muscles (the extensors, or deflectors, or any others), and then the contractile irritability of these muscles, and then the pull upon the bony leverage-when we have learned all these particulars, or any others, there remains a connecting fact to be sought for, which, if we fail to find it, must be reserved as forming the inscrutable link between Mind and Matter; it is that, the reality of which we may confidently assume, but concerning which we can know nothing beyond the fact of its reality.

325. On the one side there is THOUGHT; or we may call it, as we please, volition, or intention, or any thing else. On this ground, the choice of words can neither help us much nor hinder us much.

On one

side there is Thought, or Mind in Act; on the other side there is motion, taking place in a mass, larger or smaller, heavier or lighter. The intervening apparatus we are unconscious of-we are quite mindless in regard to it: it is to the Mind as if it were not.

326. We occupy nearly the same position as to the