different persons. He appeared to know his relations and intimate
friends, by smelling them very slightly, and he at once detected
strangers." From the whole of this interesting relation, it seems fair
to conclude that this youth, even under the privation of sight and
hearing, possessed, in the staple of his intellect, capacities beyond
the most docile animals; and these consisted in the ardent curiosity
which he displayed, and in his desire for the improvement of his limited
faculties. Had this boy been confided to my management, I should have
endeavoured to educate him through the medium of his touch, so as to
communicate his wants, and afford an occupation to his mind. Thus, if
milk had uniformly been served to him in a bowl, beer in a mug, water in
a decanter with a glass stopper, and wine in a decanter with a cork: if
these had been arranged in his apartment, he might have indicated his
wish for any of these liquids, by producing the vessel that contained
them: the two latter might have been subsequently abbreviated, by
producing the glass stopper for water and the cork for wine. As he
examined every object by the touch, it would have contributed both to
his improvement and occupation, if he had been furnished with a quantity
of ductile clay, which he might have modelled to represent the objects
he examined, and which he might have preserved as a species of tangible
vocabulary. According to my own suppositions, he might have been taught
to numerate. It may be a subject of considerable curiosity to enquire,
of what the reflections of James Mitchel could have consisted. He had no
visible impressions which his hand could record. Being deaf, he could
not have acquired the instrument of thought--language; therefore, for
the objects of the senses he possessed,--smell, taste, and touch,--he
could have no terms, as their substitutes, for the purpose of
recollection. The next important question is, in what manner (wanting
names whereby they might be represented) would the perceptions of smell,
taste, and touch be represented to his mind in order to constitute
reflection or thought on these experienced perceptions? If musk, rose,
or garlic had been smelled, these perceptions, in a being constructed
like Mitchel, would remain dormant, until the same odour were again
presented to his olfactory organ; when it would be recollected, or he
would be conscious, that it had been previously presented. In such a
being, there would be a necessity for a fresh excitation of the organ of
sense by the object, to produce recollection; whereas, in those who
possess language, the name produces the recollection of the thing
perceived.
CONCLUSION.
The subjects that have been discussed in these contributions, fully
establish the pre-eminence of man, over all other created beings; and it
has also been endeavoured to demonstrate the circumstances which have
principally contributed to this superiority. The conclusions that may be
drawn are equally important and consoling.
When the capacities of the intellect are fully ascertained, we shall be
enabled to supply it with the proper materials of instruction; so that
the protracted period of infancy may conduce to the formation of
virtuous and enlightened members of civil society. The healing art will
be abundantly promoted by a knowledge of mind;--for the remedy of its
infirmities and perversions ought to be founded on a thorough knowledge
of its faculties and operations;--nor should it be forgotten that the
prevention of crimes, and the reformation of delinquents, equally
involve an intimate acquaintance with the temperaments of human
character.
In the contemplation of mind, from the highest order to the lowest
rank,--from man, to the maggot that consumes him; we are imprest with
the evidence of appropriate contrivance and infinite wisdom. Although we
are unable to penetrate the dense veil, that conceals the arcana of
vitality and intellect; yet sufficient is exhibited to us, in the ample
volume of nature, to satisfy our curiosity, and stimulate the exercise
of reason. Observation and experience have disclosed to us, in a great
degree, the structure and functions of our own bodily frame; and the
same persevering industry has unfolded the variations which obtain in
animals. The conclusions that have been formed from the study of anatomy
and physiology, amount to a conviction, that the contrivance is
admirably adapted to produce the effects we behold;--that the means are
competent to the end. The same reasoning applies to the phenomena of
intellect, and may be illustrated by the comparative difference which
appears in animals and man.
The mental endowments and capacities which animals possess, have
rendered them stationary; whatever the more docile and intelligent may
have been compelled to learn, they do not appear to comprehend, and want
the means to communicate: so that their contemporaries and descendants
are unbenefited by the acquirement, and the attainment perishes with the
individual. When brought into existence, the world is to them a recent
creation, and bears no evidence of a former race, from archives or
monuments which they can understand. The record of their ancestors has
been discovered by man, in fossile preservation; but its characters are
unintelligible to them. As they have not been endowed with the capacity
to numerate, they can experience no solicitude for the past, nor
apprehension for the future. Their recollection is not an act of the
will, but an excitation by the object that originally produced it. In
the grammar of animals, the present is the only tense, and to punish
them for the faults they had formerly committed, would be equally absurd
and tyrannical. They are not the creatures of compact, and being unable
to comprehend the nature of institutions, and the obligation of laws,
they cannot be responsible agents. It has also been remarked, that they
are destitute of sympathy for the sufferings of their fellows; but
sympathy would be superfluous, where they cannot understand the nature
of the affliction, and do not possess the power of administering relief.
The features of the human mind are very differently shaped, and
strongly indicate an ulterior destination. Man possesses language, the
instrument of thought, the vehicle of intelligible communication;--and
he is gifted with the hand, to record the subjects of his experience, to
fabricate his contrivances, and to rear the durable monuments of his
piety and splendour. Thus, he is rapidly progressive, his mind becomes
opulent from the intellectual treasures of his ancestors, and, in his
turn, he bequeaths to posterity the legacy of wisdom. His comprehension
of numbers, on which the nature of time is founded, enable him to revert
to the transactions of distant ages, and to invest faded events with the
freshness of immediate perception. He alone can embalm the past, and
welcome the tidings of the future. Man alone is fitted to covenant,
although he may occasionally waver in the performance. His exalted
capacities, his comprehension of the law, constitute his responsibility:
for where the conditions of the compact are not understood, there can be
no disobedience or delinquency.
The helpless condition of the human infant, and the paucity of its
instincts, apparently render it less favoured than animals;--but it was
necessary, in order to constitute man a moral agent and a responsible
being, that he should be the architect of his own mind. When born, he
has every thing to learn; and a large portion of his existence is
consumed to qualify him for his station in society. Had he, like
animals, been gifted with intuitive wisdom, the donation would have
been so perfect, as to render instruction superfluous;--and such
endowment would have diminished the measure of his responsibility. The
freedom of his will, by which is to be understood the impulse of reason,
not the blind dictates of appetite, nor the sallies of tumultuous
passions, renders him amenable. Such is the force of the human mind,
that it can surmount the difficulties which situation and circumstances
oppose to its improvement: so powerful is reason, that it can correct
the prejudices of early tuition, and atone for crime, by the pursuit of
honourable practice. Man alone can repent; he only can retrace the acts
of former commission, and resolve on amelioration for the future. Thus
we find that moral responsibility has its basis in the comprehension of
Time. In proportion to our love and estimation of justice, we must be
satisfied that, under the purest forms of human government, it is but
imperfectly administered: the rewards and punishments in this life will
ever be blended with the hopes and fears, the interests and passions, of
our species; and there is much of evil, which human sagacity cannot
detect. When we consider the attributes of the Deity and the nature of
man, we can never be induced to conclude that the tribunals of this
world are the courts of final retribution. Man bears in his intellectual
construction the badge of moral responsibility, and, consequently, the
germ of future existence: and the only incentive that can urge him to
the advancement of science, and the practice of virtue, is the reward
that Revelation has unfolded.
THE END.
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