And after these, I had shown what must
be the fabric of the nerves and muscles of the human body to give the animal
spirits contained in it the power to move the members, as when we
see heads shortly after they have been struck off still move and bite the
earth, although no longer animated; what changes must take place in the
brain to produce waking, sleep, and dreams; how light, sounds, odors, tastes,
heat, and all the other qualities of external objects impress it with different
ideas by means of the senses; how hunger, thirst, and the other internal
affections can likewise impress upon it divers ideas; what must be understood
by the common sense (sensus communis) in which these ideas are received,
by the memory which retains them, by the fantasy which can change them
in various ways, and out of them compose new ideas, and which, by the same
means, distributing the animal spirits through the muscles, can cause the
members of such a body to move in as many different ways, and in a manner
as suited, whether to the objects that are presented to its senses or to
its internal affections, as can take place in our own case apart from the
guidance of the will. Nor will this appear at all strange to those who
are acquainted with the variety of movements performed by the different
automata, or moving machines fabricated by human industry, and that with
help of but few pieces compared with the great multitude of bones, muscles,
nerves, arteries, veins, and other parts that are found in the body of
each animal. Such persons will look upon this body as a machine made by
the hands of God, which is incomparably better arranged, and adequate to
movements more admirable than is any machine of human invention. And here
I specially stayed to show that, were there such machines exactly resembling
organs and outward form an ape or any other irrational animal, we could
have no means of knowing that they were in any respect of a different nature
from these animals; but if there were machines bearing the image of our
bodies, and capable of imitating our actions as far as it is morally possible,
there would still remain two most certain tests whereby to know that they
were not therefore really men. Of these the first is that they could never
use words or other signs arranged in such a manner as is competent to us
in order to declare our thoughts to others: for we may easily conceive
a machine to be so constructed that it emits vocables, and even that it
emits some correspondent to the action upon it of external objects which
cause a change in its organs; for example, if touched in a particular place
it may demand what we wish to say to it; if in another it may cry out that
it is hurt, and such like; but not that it should arrange them variously
so as appositely to reply to what is said in its presence, as men of the
lowest grade of intellect can do. The second test is, that although such
machines might execute many things with equal or perhaps greater perfection
than any of us, they would, without doubt, fail in certain others from
which it could be discovered that they did not act from knowledge, but
solely from the disposition of their organs: for while reason is an universal
instrument that is alike available on every occasion, these organs, on
the contrary, need a particular arrangement for each particular action;
whence it must be morally impossible that there should exist in any machine
a diversity of organs sufficient to enable it to act in all the occurrences
of life, in the way in which our reason enables us to act. Again, by means
of these two tests we may likewise know the difference between men and
brutes. For it is highly deserving of remark, that there are no men so
dull and stupid, not even idiots, as to be incapable of joining together
different words, and thereby constructing a declaration by which to make
their thoughts understood; and that on the other hand, there is no other
animal, however perfect or happily circumstanced, which can do the like.
Nor does this inability arise from want of organs: for we observe that
magpies and parrots can utter words like ourselves, and are yet unable
to speak as we do, that is, so as to show that they understand what they
say; in place of which men born deaf and dumb, and thus not less, but rather
more than the brutes, destitute of the organs which others use in speaking,
are in the habit of spontaneously inventing certain signs by which they
discover their thoughts to those who, being usually in their company, have
leisure to learn their language. And this proves not only that the brutes
have less reason than man, but that they have none at all: for we see that
very little is required to enable a person to speak; and since a certain
inequality of capacity is observable among animals of the same species,
as well as among men, and since some are more capable of being instructed
than others, it is incredible that the most perfect ape or parrot of its
species, should not in this be equal to the most stupid infant of its kind
or at least to one that was crack-brained, unless the soul of brutes were
of a nature wholly different from ours. 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.