OMNIANA.
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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[1] them, how,
- ↑ Si bestiis datum esset sensationibus exterioribus at organicis interioribus nobiscum convenire, inhumanum, sævum ac crudele fieri ab hominibus passim concedendum esset. Quid enim atrocius quam veterina animalia sub gravibus oneribus et prolixis itineribus fessa, vapulis
