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not obstructed ia its course by the air or some other intervening body . AH involuntary motion , therefore , bem " necessarily and in its own nature rectilinear , and the motions of beasts not being rectilinear , but in all directions and in any direction , as occasion requires ( for they , in their way , act as much pro re natu as we can - do ); it follows , that every beast has something within which judges , consults and directs ; which , as it cannot possibly be materials must be spiritual * If a dog were running from this end of the room to the other , and one of the gentlemen by the opposite chimney-piece was to stand up in a menacing posture , the animal would immediately cease to proceed in a right line * because he would know that
would be the wrong for his safety ; he would turn back and , if possible , escape at the door . What is this but practical reason ? An excellence , by the bye , in which many of those creatures surpass the generality of mankind . The language of such conduct is apparently this . " If I go forward , danger , is before me ; if I return or go another way , I may probably escape that danger ; ergo > I will do the letter . " Could we ourselves , in similar circumstances * argue more justly or act more wisely ? From which I conclude , that as there is evidently sometiling ia every living creature which discerns what is good and puts him upon puratiinjr it ; which likewise points out what is pernicious and puts him upoi } avoiding * it ; this discerning , reasoning * inclining principle , must be essentially different from the mechanie system it actuates , and can be no other , in plain English * than an MtUigentiaui . $ hould it be objected , thai ; « . ' tfoia intelligent principle does not always produce these beneficjal effects , witness the case of a dog who wrailewed poison under the ^ ppreflenaou of a daintj ^ I answer , man "i&isejKis liable to deception * of a si-^ arland . . Vet he would be a di » - Staoe to the name of man who should , tt tK > n tlrie Account , qucBtion either the ' ^^^ teiialitv - m immortality of hift
* l ^ y * likewise , great attention to T * wr consideration * That beasts ™ J ^ P « a « Miad ipf the five , sen $ es w * j £ w * w « olv «** ujHwl (* hough , per-J ^ L ** **** * ev ^ ry «> ne of i tho * e ^^ wet tttftjVin reality * be redwetibte to
one , viz . feeling ) , in as great , and sometimes much , greater perfection than we , is a principle which I look upon as incontestable . Brutes are , if experience ( which is-practical demonstration ) carries any authority , as sensible of pain and pleasure as men . Rub a cat ' s head , and she will purr ; pinch her tail , and she will spit . Now I would ask , what is it that feels ? The body , the flesh , the blood , the nerves ? No : for a dead animal has all these , and yet feels not . It is
the soniy Mr . President , that feels and perceives through the medium of the senses : for what are senses but channels of conveyance , and a sort of mediators between outward objects and the mind ? In what way matter acts upon spirit is unknown ; but that it does so , every day ' s experience proves . Memory likewise belongs to brutes . Memory is the power of recalling past ideas , and of recollecting past events . The person who denies that beasts remember , must either be a man of no observation , or have a very bad memory himself . Now there can be no memory without ideas ^ no ideas without thinking ( for the forming , the comparison and the combination of ideas , are thought ) : no thinking without some degree of reasoning ; and no reasoning without a reasonable sovl . There may be thought without memory , but memory there can be none , without thought . And the passions likewise are as strong in them as in Us .
On the whole , / needless ) cruelty to beasts , is highly criminal ; especially if we take in these two observations : 1 ? That the same Deity who made them what they are , might have made us what they are 3 « . e . be might have imprisoned our spirits in their bodies , had it been his pleasure . And though I look upon the Pythagorean doctrine of transmigration to be in itself both groundless and absurd , yet its tendency was cerfcMftl y a very gop 4 one ; as it necessarily induced « ien t # > be tender of th $ lives and happiness * the being and w ^ H ~ being of the animal' creation , 2 « As awother very cogent na tive to this benevoleuce of disposition tuad behaviour , let us never fwg ^ t that ^ 1 J the mweries apej hardships under which tile ; brute < Te ^ tion laboii ^ t < vgather with mo&ofoty if » eif to whi h thjpy a * -e JUWc % ftre , primarily , wvpnig tOi the « in tf man ; which r « - flmtioA > must influence evwy c < &r
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Speech of Mr . Toplady ' s , on Brutes having Souls . 3 49
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1815, page 349, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1761/page/21/
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