And we ought not to confound speech with the natural
movements which indicate the passions, and can be imitated by machines as
well as manifested by animals; nor must it be thought with certain of the
ancients, that the brutes speak, although we do not understand their
language. For if such were the case, since they are endowed with many
organs analogous to ours, they could as easily communicate their thoughts
to us as to their fellows. It is also very worthy of remark, that, though
there are many animals which manifest more industry than we in certain of
their actions, the same animals are yet observed to show none at all in
many others: so that the circumstance that they do better than we does not
prove that they are endowed with mind, for it would thence follow that
they possessed greater reason than any of us, and could surpass us in all
things; on the contrary, it rather proves that they are destitute of
reason, and that it is nature which acts in them according to the
disposition of their organs: thus it is seen, that a clock composed only
of wheels and weights can number the hours and measure time more exactly
than we with all our skin.
I had after this described the reasonable soul, and shown that it could by
no means be educed from the power of matter, as the other things of which
I had spoken, but that it must be expressly created; and that it is not
sufficient that it be lodged in the human body exactly like a pilot in a
ship, unless perhaps to move its members, but that it is necessary for it
to be joined and united more closely to the body, in order to have
sensations and appetites similar to ours, and thus constitute a real man.
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