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. : TRUTH IS POWERFUL,
“yom, I.
> REVIEW cF NEW BOOKS.
«Phe Animal Kingdom described and arranged, in conformity
‘ “with its Organization, by the Baron Cuvier, &c. JWith addi-
- (tional descriptions and other original matter. - By Edw. Gi if.
S., and ih
fiths, F. L.§,, and others. .Part [X. London, 1826.
y aker. . .
> Nearly rh years azo, the commencement of this work, was
scomnmendal announced, and the manner described in which
whe translawp had taken up the subject; adding greatly to the
famous Regne Animal of Cuvier from recent discoveries and
observations, which tended to set the study of Zoolo
‘“yroader basis, and render it at the same time more delectable
aud more instructive, Since that period, the publication has
proceeded with uninterrupted success, and we have now befor
us the Niath Part, frem’a review of which, our readers will be
enabled ta judge of the character of the whole.
One of the most important features in a production of this
. class is to be found in the execution of the plates; and we have
‘ pleasure in stating thet neither paius nor expense seem to have
a been spared to render these what they ought to be, as accom-
° and illustrations of ‘so valuable a book. hey ar
in li smely well done, whether we view
chanical part of the art, or as spi-
rited and characteristic representations of the various animals.
pe In either way they merit entire approbatoin. a tes
- With regard to the literary and scientific portion of this fasi-
enlus, we- have, with some slight exception, to speak of itin
rerms equally laudatory. Diligence, research, and care appear
not to be wantiag—indeed there may, perhaps, be too much of
ihe last-nentioned quality—the long details of the shooting of
our old neighbour the Elephant in Exeter ’Change might we
»
a
them as specimens 0
however, mere opinion, i h 1
sidering them too curious to be omitted in a Natural History.
‘This Part concludes the Order Packydermata, and begins the
ia :—in the’ for-
met is ably discussed, and
support of the doctrines
Ovder Ruminantia, both in the Class
mer, the interesting question 0 inst}
‘some remarkable stories are told in
xaaiutained by the writer, . / :
+ «The real difference (he says) between brute reason end hu-
aman does not appear to us to be in the capability afforded to
the latter and denied to the former, The elephant that had a
yeasonable knowledge that a current of air would move # com-
ses of mechanical powers; to
Nnderstand the doctrines of angles; to calculate the extent of
resisting mediums. Not so the savage:—we know, if not expe-
va yimentaily, atleast by analogy, that his wind is capable in some
: ions i nt: reason in
é . ‘the brute is rudimentary, and incapable of progression; .
jt attains a degee of developement, proportioned, as we have
hant to penetrate the princip
B
1, to the pains bestowed npon its culture. And this is pers
4 fectly_contpatible with the accountable condition of man, a
: ‘ghe contrary state of lower animals. ‘They, in all probability,
ir rudimen
3 their intellectual restricted gift therefore brings with it
no reciprocity of obligation; they have not eaten the fruit of
the tuge of knowledge of good and evil : their eyes are po open
* «During our waking moments, as our senses are continually
aeted upon by surrounding objects, they are constantly recciv-
ing impressions of various kinds, impressions, however,
do not necessarily form Ideas; we sce objects, we hear sounds,
bodies—but all these impressions may be utterly in-
nsequencial in regard to our intelligence, and take place with-
sut producing @ single idea: but if the stimulus of some want
ar desire produce the preparatory act of which we have been
ing, in other. words, if we place ourselves in a state of pt-
d fix that atten tion on an object by which our senses
ideas are ‘the immediate result.
ention, and fx Wat any
ssed, on
ere ec realty of attention, which follows sensafion, and pr
duces ideas, is certainly possessed by avimals; it is superfuous
eerie isan. Its porsessed in the highest
ility to man, is pos: ee
be of the smaltest atithy animals, wkose senses and cerberal
conformation are the most perfeet; when compared with our
‘own, It must be confessed, however, that this faculty, on which
» ‘all intellect is founded, is obvi sly possessed, by the most per-
i ‘ect of these animals, ina much inferior degree to thatin which
it exists in man; their senses, like his, receive Impressions from
sations they pay no attention; u ‘é
.gehich are immediately relative to their habitual .wants, aod
their ideas must consequently be few, and very little varied ;
“yery exuwordiuary circumstances are necessary to make them
tritnsetmnet ae a oF
eed 2
‘“NEW-YORK, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER
vary their actions, or extend, in any degree, the circle of their
ideas. This takes place among them to the greatest degree we
ever witness it, under the influence of man; under his guidance
they are susceptible of an augmented education; but when they
are left to themselves, their improvability is very limited, Ali
objects, except those in which their physical wants are inter-
ested are to them as nothing; nature presents to their view no
ohject of wonder, of curiosity, of admiration, or of love; nothing
can interest them but what minjsters to the relief of their wants,
the gratification of their appetites, security from danger, or ¢h-
joyment of repose; all else is seen without attention, and with-
out intelligence. There is, however, a. vast difference: in this
respect, between animals of different species. _
“ Look, for instance, at the attention and apparent curiosity
with which a monkey examines every cbject before it, compar-
with the apathy of the swine! But it must be questioned
whether all this Sagacious attention be not finally referrible to
his physical wants. He appears
the eye ofa philosopker; but itis more than probable that a dis-
covery of their esculent properties, if they have any, is all he
has jn view, . Animals then possess, in a certain degree, the
power’ of attention, and consequently forming ideas. That
these ideas remain impressed on their Seusoria, and frequently
recur, is quite evident; in other words, that they hav ,
It is equally evident that numerous and varigd associations are
formed between these sideas, and that animals deduce thence,
many judgments; which judgments, like our own, are true or
false, according to the premises on which they rest, and tie ac-
curacy with which they are deduced; in short, thgt they are as
unlike the deductions of instinct, and, as far as they go, as like
those of human intelligence, as sufficiently to infer identity.
“It is selfevident that the intelligence of every being must
be limited by the namber and variety of its ideas. ‘These, as
we have seen, depend upon the degree of attention. There isa
dependence iu the intellectual faculties, each
one being proportioned tothe strepg: its precursor. \¥'
allow.that animals possess attention, memory, association, aud
judgment, or the power of deducing inferences from comparison
of ideas, | But if the attention be limited, so is the number of
ideas, so is the memory; the associatins ate consequently un-
ju
varied, the judgments few, and resulling from very simple pro-
cesses of comparison. That this conclusion is warranted by
the observation of the action of animals, cannot be denied; ex-
cept in the case of those instinctive operations which have no-
thing to do with the present question. ‘That animals can com-
pare two or moré objects present to their senses, discern some
of their relations, and execute an act of judgment. thereupon, is
ear yet : rs te
From these passages the author's opinions touching the mind
of animals may be gathered; we shall no shew he illustrates
sonte of his positions by extremely amusing anecdotes.
* An'elephant which a few years ago belonged to Mr. Cross,
at Exerter Change, attained to the practice of a curious trick,
which by repetition might be said to have acquired, if indeed
instinct could be acquired, something of an instinctive charac-
ter: but which, the first time it occurred atleast, seems attribu-
table to nothing short of reason. It is the usual part of
performances of an elephant at a publie exhibition, to pick ‘up
a piece of coin, thrown within his reach for the purposé, with
she fingertike appendage at the extremity of the trunk; on
one occasion a sixpence was thrown down, which, happened to
roll alittle out of the reach of the animal, not far, rom the
wall; being desired to pick it up, he stretched out his proboscis
several times to reach it; he then. stood, motionless for a few
seconds, evidently considering, we have no hesitation in saying
evidently considering, how to act; he then stretched bis pro-
boscis in a strait ling as far as hé could, a little distance above
the coin, and blew with great force against the wall; the angle
produced by the opposition of the wail, made the current of air
actundey the coin as he evidently intended and enticipated it
would, and it was curious to observe the sixpence travelling b.
these meaus towards the animal, tillit came within his reach,
and he picked it up,. This complicated calcwtation of natural
means at his djsposal, was sn intellectual effort beyond what a
vast number of human beings would ever have thought of,. and
would be considered as a tucky thought, a clever expedient,
under similar circumstances in any man... It was an action per-
fectly indiferent, had no relation her to self-prescrvation of
to propagatio: an Mt *.
“ Some young camels belonging to a much respected friend
of the editor, and brother of a very yeivable contributor to this
work, were travelling with the army, when they had occasion
to cross the Jemna ina flat-bottomed boat; the novelty of the
thing excited their fears to such a degree that it seemed impos-
sible to drive or induce them to exter the bont spontancously 5
upcn which one of the mobants, or elephant-keepers, ‘called to
his’elephant, and desired him to.drive them in; the animal im-
mediately put on a farious appearance, trumpeted with his pro-
boscis, shook his ears, roared, struck the ground to the right
andleft, and blew the dust in clouds towards them; and so ef
fectually subdued one great fear in the refractory camels by ex-
citing a greater, that they bolted into the boat in the greatcst
harry,—when the elephant re-assumed his composure, and de-
S
a
Hbeyately walked back to his pest, |, The same plephant was pp.
AND WILL PREVAIL.
11,1826. NO. 45,
pesled to by his mghant to remove a branch from a tree which «
hung too low to raise ihe tent pole; the animal looked at the
pole as if measuring it with his eye, then at the tree and im-
pending branch; he then turned his rump towards the trunk of
the'tree, stepped a couple of paces forward, took the branch in
his trunk, and felt as if examining where it would split off; find-
ing it easy at this place, he moved a litde back to where it was”
thicker; then taking a firm hold, he gave it three or four succes-
sive swings, increasing his force, till with one very powerful
effort it tore and fell on the ground. , Being appealed to, to re +
move another branch still higher, he looked up, stretched his
probascis, and caught only a twig or two and some hk he
was urged again, he shook his ears and gave a piping sound of
displeasure; but the mohat insisting, after wnother vain attempt;
he caught the bearing pole of a duoly (a kind of palanquin,)
and shook it with yiolence, making a poor sick soldier immedi-
ately start out of it; the hint was sufticient—he would not be
trified with. Hem .
“ Atthe seige ‘of Bhurtpore, in the year 1805, aa affair oc-
cusred between two elephants, which displays at once the cha-
racter and mental capability, the passions, cunying, and re-
rces of these curious animals.” The British army, with its
countless host of followers and attendants, and thousands of
cattle, had Leen for a. long time before’ the city, when on the
approach of the hot season, and of the dry hot winds, the sup+
ply of water in thé neighbourhood of the vamp necessary for .
the supply of so mgny beings began ta fail ;
had dried up, and no more water was left in the i
of the country would furnish, The multitude of men and cat-
de that were unceasing’ at the wells, particularly the largest,
occasioned no inconsiderable struggle for the prierity in procu:
ving the supply for which each were to seek, and the conse-
quent confusion on the spot was frequently very considerable.
On one occasion, two elephant drivers, cach with his elephant, °
the one remarkably large and strong, and the other compara-
tively small and w wore ut the well together; the small ele-
phant had been: provided by his master with a bucket for the
occasion, which he carried at the end of his proboscis; hut the
larger animal, being ¢estitute of this necrssary vessel, either
spontaneously or by desire of his keeper scized the bucket, and
easily wrested itaway from his less powerful fellow-servant;
the latter was too sensible of his inferjority, openly ts resent
the insult, thongh it was obvigus that he felt it; Lut great squab.
bling andabuse ensued between the keepers, At length the
weaker animal, watching his opportunity when the other was
standing with his side to the well, retired backwards a few paces, °
in a very quiet tnsuspicious mauner,
with all his might, drove his head against the side of the other,
and fairly pushed him into the well. - An inquiry might naturally
be made here, whether these animal were in the csse in question
possessed of any thing like a moral sense?’ We should certains
ly have no inclination to refer a moral sense strictly speaking,
in any case to the. lower animals; its existence, independently
of education and habit in man, may be problematical ; bat there
seems little doubt that the animals in question had acquired a
princip'e not far, if at all, removed from a’ partial knowledge
of rightand wrong: being constantly fed by portions or mes-.
ses, it may be easily suppored that it attained a knowledge of
meum and (uum, an nowledge, however limited i
beginning, might, from the constant intercourse of theae creas
tures vith man, be in ‘some degree iniproved, (of which instinct
is altogether incapable,) and more largely .applied., This 00,
tion, however, presuppoes a limited degree of reason in the
animal, . It may easily be imagined that great inconvenience
was immediately experienced, ant i
Jy followed, and the water in the well, on which the existence
of so many seemed ina great measure to depend, would be
spoited, orat leastinjared, by the unwieldy brate which was _
precipitated into it; and as the surface of the water was nearly
twenty fect below the common level, there did not appear to be
any means that could be adopted to get the animal out by main
force, at least without injuring him? there were many feet of *
water below the elephant, who fuated with ease on its surface,
and, experiencing considerable pleasure from his cool retreat,
evinced dut little mclination even to exert what means he might
possess in himself of escape, A’vast number of fascines had
Geen employed by the army in conducting the siege, and at
length it occurred to the elephant-keeper, that a suficient nuin. ©
ber of these (which may be compared to bundles of wood) might
be lowered into the well to makea pile, which might be raised
to the top, if the animal could be instructed as to the necessary
means cf laying them in regular succession under his feet. Per-
mission having been obtained: from the engineer ofiicers to use
the fascines, which were at the time put away in several piles
of very cousiderable height, the keeper had to teach thi:
phant the lesson, which 5
dency these men attain over the elephants, joined with the in-
tellectual ¥esources of the animal itself, he was soon enable to
jo; and the elephant began quickly to place each fascine gs it
a
was lawered to him, successively, under hich. until in a little
time he was enabled to stand upon them: by this time, however,
the cunning brute, enjoying the cool pleasure of his situation
after the heat aod partial privation of water to which he had
been lately exposes, (they are cbserved in their natural state tg:
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