that he, with the rest of his reafoning Fellow→ Animals, may be exactly of the fame Make, have nothing in them fuperior to Matter, no Principle of Immortality, nothing capable of eternal Rewards and Punishments; though he himself would easily turn the Tables upon you, and prove the contrary, from the plaineft Principles of Nature and Philosophy. On the other hand, if we could prove to his Satiffaction, that every Kind and Degree of Life through the universal System must necessarily be immortal, it would prove strongly upon him the Neceffity of his own Immortality, and quite destroy the feeble, the terrible Hope of Annihilation, or utter Extinction of his Being; it would fhow him in a strong and amazing Light, the abfolute Impoffibility of evading the proper and neceffary Punishment of a wicked and ungodly Life, the unavoidable Consequences of brutish and vicious Habits, debafing the Soul, degrading it from its proper Rank and Dignity, corrupting all its Faculties, and rendering it uncapable of thofe divine Communications which are the proper Life, the only real Felicity, of human Souls. But to return,

The wonderful Gradation in the Scale of Beings (fo far as our Senfes can discover it) is not only the Object of daily Experience and Admiration, but is also a noble Key to open to us the more remote and invifible Scenes of Nature and Providence, and to raise upon the Foundation of a just and proper Analogy, a rational Superftructure, little inferior in Evidence and Strength to a mathematical Demonftration. As we obferve, in all Parts of the Creation, that there is a gradual Connection of one with

another,

another, without any great or difcernible Gaps between, that in all that great Variety of Things we fee in the World, they are all fo closely linked together, that it is not eafy to difcover the Bounds between them; we have all the Reafon imaginable to believe, that by such gentle Steps and imperceptible Degrees, Beings afcend in the univerfal Syftem from the lowest to the highest Point of Perfection. Where is he that can fettle the Boundaries of the material and fpiritual World? Who can tell where the fenfible and rational begin, and where the infenfible and irrational end? Who can precisely determine the lowest Species of Animals, and the first and highest Degree of inanimate Beings? The whole Syftem of natural Beings, fo far as we can obferve, leffen and augment in the fame Proportion, as the Quantity does in a regular Cone, where, though there be a manifeft Difference betwixt the Bignefs of the Diameter at remote Distances, yet the Difference betwixt the upper and under, where they touch each other, is hardly difcernible: The Difference betwixt Man and Man is inconceivably great. Were we to compare a Newton, a Locke, or a Boyle, with that Sort of human Creatures, commonly distinguished by the Name and Title of honeft, or very honeft Fellows, who have very little befides their Shape and Rifibility, (or Faculty of Laughing, which fome Philofophers make to be the formal Difference betwixt rational and irrational Animals) to diftinguifh them from Brutes, we fhould be almoft tempted to think. them of a different Species: But were we to compare the Understandings, the Tempers, the Abilities, of fome Men and fome Brutes, we fhall find fo little VOL. I.

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Difference, that it would be hard to fay, to which we should give the Preference. The Brute in the Sty, the Stable, or the Kennel, and the Brute in the Parlour, are very often diftinguished to the Advantage of the former, as the more harmless, the more ufeful, the more virtuous Animals of the two. Nor has the Difference, in Point of Understanding, been much less confiderable. Now, as the Rule of Analogy makes it more than probable, that, in the afcending Part of the Scale there are numberless Ranks and Orders of intelligent Beings, excelling us in several Degrees of Perfection, ascending upwards towards the infinite Perfection of the Creator, by gentle Steps and Differences, that are hardly at a discernible Distance from each other: So in the defcending Part, there are doubtless numberlefs Ranks and Orders of Beings, endued with lower Faculties, lower Degrees of Life and Perception, till you come down, by imperceptible Degrees, to the Vegetables and inanimate Brute-Matter ; but what are the specific Differences that distinguish these several Ranks and Degrees of Beings, is not eafy to conceive. The Scale of Life, like the Continuation of all Motion, the Undulation of Waves, the Vibration of Sounds, and the Progreffion of Light, are performed by certain infeparable, though distinct and decreasing Communications and Impreffions from one Part of Matter to another, each of them proportionably diminishing, till you come at last to a State of abfolute Inaction and Reft: But what is the precife and abfolute Boundary, betwixt languid Motion and abfolute Reft, that created Understanding can explain or comprehend? Who can fix the direct Point where

the laft dying Sound expires in dead Silence? Who can discern where the laft glimmering Ray of Light is fwallowed up in total Darkness and Obscurity? Who can determine the Limits betwixt the Ebb and Flowing of the Tide; or, defcribe the fingle Point, which is the Ending of the one, and the Beginning of the other? Nor are the Boundaries betwixt the human and brute Understanding more eafily diftinguished. Who can determine the lowest Degree of human Ignorance, and the highest Pitch of brutal Knowledge? Who can fay where the one ends, and the other begins, or whether there be any other Difference betwixt them but in Degree.

Mr. Locke, in his 27th Chapter, of Identity and Diversity, has, in the Course of his Argument, dropped fomething so much to our present Purpose, and fo apparently contradictory to what he has advanced in other Parts of his Theory, that I cannot help tranfcribing it, pag. 284, Edit. 8vo. I think I may be confident, that whoever fhould fee a Creature of his own Shape, though it had no more Reafon, as to its Life, than a Cat, or a Parrot, would call him fill a Man or whosoever fhould hear a Cat or a Parrot difcourfe, reafon, and philofophize, would call or think it nothing but a Cat or a Parrot; and fay, the one was a dull, irrational Man, and the other a very intelligent rational Parrot. A Relation we have in an Author of great Note (meaning Sir William Temple's Memoirs): I had a Mind to know, from Prince Maurice's own Mouth, the Account of a common, but much credited Story, that I had heard fo often from many others, of an old Parrot he had in Brafil, during his Government there, that fpoke, and asked, and answered common Questions

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Questions, like a reasonable Creature; so that those of his Train there, generally concluded it to be Witchery or Poffeffion; and one of his Chaplains, who lived long afterwards in Holland, would never, from that Time, endure a Parrot, but faid, they all had a Devil in them. I had heard many Particulars of this Story, and affevered by People hard to be difcredited; which made me afk Prince Maurice, What there was in it? He faid, with his ufual Plainnefs and Dryness of Talk, That there was fomething true, but a great deal false, of what had been reported. I defired to know of him what there was of the first? He told me short and coldly, That he had heard of fuch an old Parrot, when he came to Brafil; and though he believed nothing of it, and it was a good Way off, he had the Curiofity to fend for it; that it was a very great and a very old one; and when it came first into the Room where the Prince was, with a great many Dutchmen about him, it faid prefently, What a Company of white Men are here! They afked it, What he thought that Man was, pointing at the Prince? It anfwered, Some General or other. When they brought it close to him, he asked it, * D'ou venez vous? It anfwered, De Marinnan. The Prince, A qui eftes vous? The Parrot, A un Portuguese. The Prince, Qui fais tu la? The Parrot, Je garde les Poules. The Prince laughed, and faid, Vous gardes les Poules! The Parrot answered, Ouy, Moy, et je fçay bien faire; and made the Chuck four or five Times,

* Whence come you? From Marinnan. Prince. To whom do you belong? The Parrot. To a Portuguese. Prince. What do you do there? Parrot. I look after the Chickens. Prince. You look after the Chickens! Parrot. Yes, I know how to do it very well.