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in creation than either, are longer lived than birds: it has been said of some species, and of certain snakes also, that they grow as long as they live, and as far as we know, live till some accident puts an end to their indefinite term of life. And the toad! it cannot indeed be said that the toad lives for ever, but many of these animals who were cased up at the general deluge, are likely to live till they are baked in their cells at the general conflagration.

I have said that birds seem to rank higher than beasts in the scale of being, because the gym, which in beasts is confined to the female, extends in birds to both sexes; and because they have the connubial affection, to which there seems no nearer approach among beasts than the Turk-like polygamy of some of the gregarious species.

234. Souls of Brutes.

I have somewhere read of an odd hy

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pothesis, or heresy, as it would be called, of Father Bougeant, who endeavoured to deduce from reason, and prove by scripture, that the spirits of brutes are devils, sentenced to punishment in that shape; a doctrine which would admirably accord with the old belief in familiars. It might also afford considerable comfort to the epicures, who used to have their pigs whipt to death, and the gentlemen of the present day who amuse themselves with Welsh mains, riding against time, and other such worthy recreations, if it did not follow as a corollary, that they who make their own spirits evil in one state of existence must afford amusement and occupation in the next to such beadles and executioners of divine retribution as themselves.

The practice which the Tupinambas* founded upon their theory of generation is a memorable proof that speculative

* History of Brazil, Vol. 1, p. 218.

follies of this kind may lead to dreadful consequences. Father Bougeant, perhaps, was not aware of this. I can easily imagine that he may have been a man of quick sensibility and lively imagination, who feeling a keen sympathy for the sufferings of domestic animals, took shelter in this hypothesis from the pain. and indignation, and possibly from the momentary doubt or distrust of providence, which the contemplation of those sufferings excited. Gomez Pereira, from whom Descartes is said (I know not with what justice,) to have adopted the paradoxical opinion that animals are non-sentient, certainly had this feeling, and it led him to use a most curious argumentum ad hominem to his countrymen the Spaniards, asking* them, how,

Si bestlis datum esset sensationibus exterioribus et organicis interioribus nobiscum convenire, inhumanum, savum ac crudele fieri ab hominibus passim concedendum esset. Quid enim atrocius quam veterina animalia sub gravibus oneribus et prolixis itineribus fessa, vapulis

if his opinion were not true, they could possibly enjoy their favourite bull-fights!

235. Columbus.

Mr. Pinkerton calls the West Indies the Isles of Colon. A name was certainly wanting for these islands which might be adopted by the writers of all countries. Mr. Pinkerton prefers this appellation to the more natural one of the

cadere, et ferro adeo crudeliter pungere, donec sanguis e vulneribus manet, ipsis non raro gemitibus ac vocibus quibusdam (si ex nutibus eorum licet elicere animorum suorum affectus) miserationem petentibus? Ac ultra hunc immanitatem, quæ tanto atrocior, quantó frequentior. habetur, crudelitatis apicem obtineret taurorum agitatorum tormentum, sudibus, ensibus, lapidibusque cæsis ipsis ; nec in alium humanum usum, quam ut iis flagitiis humanus visus delectetur, quibus bestia vindictam mugitu supplex poscere videtur. Atque non tantum hominis pravus affectus culpandus offertur, dum hæc ita percipi à tauris, ut nutus eorum indicant, creduntur, sed omnis benignitas naturæ aboletur et culpatur, quæ genuerit viventia illa, ac quamplurima alia, ut vitam adeò ærumnis et miseriis plexam agant.

Antoniana Margarita, 21. Methymna
Campi, 1554.

Columbian Islands, because, he says, many foreign nations might interpret this latter name to mean the Isles of Doves, and therefore it is better to preserve the original name of the great discoverer. Columbus, however, was the discoverer's family name, and it is thus curiously allegorized, or as the Methodists would say, improved by his son Fernando,.. in a manner which might have delighted Mr. Shandy. "His name and surname were not without some mystery. We may instance many 'names which were given by secret impulse, to denote the effects those persons were to produce, as in his is foretold and expressed the wonder he performed. For if we look upon the common surname of his ancestors, we may say he was true Columbus, or Columba, for as much as he conveyed the grace of the Holy Ghost into that new world which he discovered, shewing those people who knew him not, which was God's beloved Son, as the Holy Ghost did in the figure

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