156 EVOLUTION, OLD AND NEW. 



which the living universe presents itself to our eyes 

 as though it were a single family, we pass to a 

 tableau rather of the differences between living forms, 

 we shall see that, with the exception of some of the 

 greater species, such as the elephant, rhinoceros, hip- 

 popotamus, tiger, lion, which must each have their 

 separate place, the other races seem all to blend with 

 neighbouring forms, and to fall into groups of like- 

 nesses, greater or lesser, and of genera which our 

 nomenclators represent to us by a network of shapes, of 

 which some are held together by the feet, others by the 

 teeth, horns, and skin, and others by points of still minor 

 importance. And even those whose form strikes us as 

 most perfect, as approaching most nearly to our own 

 even the apes require some attention before they can 

 be distinguished from one another, for the privilege of 

 being an isolated species has been assigned less to 

 form than to size ; and man himself, though of a sepa- 

 rate species and differing infinitely from all or any 

 others, has but a medium size, and is less isolated and 

 has nearer neighbours than have the greater animals. 

 If we study the Orang-outang with regard only to his 

 configuration, we might regard him, with equal justice, 

 as either the highest of the apes or as the lowest of 

 mankind, because, with the exception of the soul, he 

 wants nothing of what we have ourselves, and because, 

 as regards his body, he differs less from man than he 

 does from other animals which are still called apes." * 



The want of a soul Buffon maintains to be the only 

 essential difference between the Orang-outang and 

 * Tom. xiv. p. 30, 1766. 



