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Ay, ſay they, but the reaſon of brutes is ſtationary, they never improve, they never invent. This is not true. Individuals of the ſame ſpecies of animals differ in degree of ſagacity in the ſame manner as individuals among the human race. Their ſagacity depends alſo, like that of the human race, upon their ſituation. The otter, ſays Abbe Raynal, in Europe a ſtupid and ſolietary animal, has made in America a greater progreſs in the arts of civil ſociety, than the native tribes of Indians.
Pliny, ſpeaking of elephants, ſays, "Intellectus illis fermonis patrii, imperiorumque obedientia, officiorum quæ didicere memoria, amoris et gloriæ voluptas, imo vero (quæ etiam in homine rara) probitas, prudentia,
