XV. The first doubt is built upon the opposition and arguments of the Cartesians, who pretend, that all brutes are inanimate machines, and that there is no other sensible animal but man; for which reason, in their opinion, a sensible being is not a generical entity, but a specific one, and proper to the human species in a quarter proportion. I am thoroughly persuaded, that this opinion of the Cartesians is a false one; but I have not yet seen any evident argument or demonstration to confront it; nor has any person hitherto, hit upon one that evinces the falsity of it; for their principal foundation is not so weak, but that it has puzzled the most able Aristotelites to give an answer to it. But I do not find, that this is any obstacle to our giving our firm assent to the sensibility of brutes; although we have no reason to glory in our proofs of this matter, when the contrary opinion, besides the arguments that are produced to support it, finds so many partizans; and among them some of excellent ingenuity. Nor have we any reason to suppose, what I have known many people maintain, that all the Cartesians, think differently from what they speak in this matter; for some of them, are as full of the caprice that brutes are insensible, as we are of the persuasion that the contrary is the fact. A few years ago, certain ladies who were present at a bull-feast, seemed to express great concern for the sufferings of one of the bulls, which the people employed for that purpose, worried excessively. A French lady, who was a Cartesian philosopher, that sat near them, begged they would not grieve, for says the good Cartesian with great gravity, _I believe as firmly as I do in God and this cross, that the bull feels no more pain than the bench I sit on_. I do not know whether the other ladies believed her, but I am persuaded, that many are stedfastly of the same opinion with the French lady. XLVI. The second doubt, whether other entities besides animals are not sensible, is patronized by Campanela, who labours by a variety of arguments, to prove in divers parts of his Works, that all elemental things are sensible. This doubt is also supported, and with more colour of reason, by those philosophers, who allow feeling to plants. And that this opinion may not appear extravagant; for the information of those who adopt the common sentiment, it will not be amiss to let them know, that Aristotle did not look upon this thing in that light, for he rather inclines to patronize the doubt; for in his first book _de Plantis_, he says, there is no certainty whether plants are, or are not, endued with feeling, appetite, and knowledge: _Nec enim constat, habeant ne plantæ animam, appetendique facultatem, doloris item, & voluptatis, & rerum discretionis._ In the third place, the naturalists, who build upon experimental observations, attribute feeling to some determined species of plants, which on that account, they call sensitive plants. SECT. XI.