of the laureled _sophi_ asked them, "WHAT NEWS FROM THE EARTH?" They replied, "This is news, that in forests there have been found men like beasts, or beasts like men: from their face and body they were known to have been born men, and to have been lost or left in the forests when they were two or three years old; they were not able to give utterance to any thought, nor could they learn to articulate the voice into any distinct expression; neither did they know the food suitable for them as the beasts do, but put greedily into their mouths whatever they found in the forest, whether it was clean or unclean; besides many other particulars of a like nature: from which some of the learned among us have formed several conjectures and conclusions concerning the relative state of men and beasts." On hearing this account, some of the ancient _sophi_ asked, "What were the conjectures and conclusions formed from the circumstances you have related?" The two strangers replied, "There were several: but they may all be comprised under the following: 1. That a man by nature, and also by birth, is more stupid and consequently viler than any beast; and that he remains so, unless he is instructed. 2. That he is capable of being instructed, because he has learnt to frame articulate sounds, and thence to speak, and thereby has begun to express his thoughts, and this successively more and more perfectly until he has been able to express the laws of civil society; several of which are nevertheless impressed on beasts from their birth. 3. That beasts have rationality like men. 4. Therefore, that if beasts could speak, they would reason on any subject as acutely as men; a proof of which is, that they think from reason and prudence just as men do. 5. That the understanding is only a modification of light from the sun; the heat co-operating by means of ether, so that it is only an activity of interior nature; and that this activity may be so exalted as to appear like wisdom. 6. That therefore it is ridiculous to believe that a man lives after death any more than a beast; unless perchance, for some days after his decease, in consequence of an exhalation of the life of the body, he may appear as a mist under the form of a spectre, before he is dissipated into nature; just as a shrub raised up from its ashes, appears in the likeness of its own form. 7. Consequently that religion, which teaches a life after death, is a mere device, in order to keep the simple inwardly in bonds by its laws, as they are kept outwardly in bonds by the laws of the state." To this they added, that "people of mere ingenuity reason in this manner, but not so the intelligent:" and they were asked, "How do the intelligent reason?" They said they had not been informed; but they supposed that they must reason differently.