48 MAMMALIA. 



gradually obstructed ; the solids become rigid ; and after a life more or less prolonged, more or 

 less agitated, more or less painful, old age arrives, with decrepitude, decay, and death. Man 

 rarely lives beyond a hundred years ; and most of the species, either from disease, accidents, 

 or merely old age, perish long before that term. 



The child needs the assistance of its mother much longer than her milk, whence results an 

 education intellectual as well as physical, and a durable mutual attachment. The nearly equal 

 number of individuals of the two sexes, the difficulty of supporting more than one wife, when 

 wealth does not supply the want of power, intimate that monogamy is the natural condition 

 of our species ; and as, wherever this kind of union exists, the sire participates in the education 

 of his offspring, the length of time required for that education allows the birth of others, 

 whence the natural perpetuity of the conjugal state. From the long period of infantile weak- 

 ness results domestic subordination, and, consequently, the order of society at large, as the 

 j'oung persons which compose the new families continue to preserve with their parents those 

 tender relations to which they have so long been accustomed. This disposition to mutual 

 assistance multiplies to an almost unlimited extent those advantages previously derived by 

 isolated Man from his intelligence ; it has assisted him to tame or repulse other animals, to 

 defend himself from the effects of climate, ami thus enabled him to cover the earth with his 

 species. 



In other respects, Man appears to possess nothing resembling instinct, no regular habit of 

 industry produced by innate ideas ; all nis knowledge is the result of his sensations, his 

 observations, or of those of his predecessors. Transmitted by speech, increased by meditation, 

 applied to his necessities and his enjoyments, they have given rise to all the arts. Language 

 and letters, by preserving acquired knowledge, ar^ a source of indefinite perfection to Ins 

 species. It is thus that he has acquired ideas, and nadc all nature contribute to his wants.* 



There are very different degrees of developement, however, in Man. 



The first hordes, compelled to live by hunting and fishing, or on wild fruits, and being 

 obliged to devote all their time to search for the means of subsistence, and not being able to 

 multiply greatly, because that would have destroyed the game, advanced but slowly ; their 

 arts were limited to the construction of huts and canoes, to covering themselves with skins, 

 and fabricating arrows and nets ; they observed such stars only as served to direct them in 

 their journeys, and some natural objects whose properties were of use to them ; they gained the 

 dog for a companion, because he had a natural inclination for the same kind of life. When 

 they had succeeded in taming the herbivorous animals, they found in the possession of 

 numerous flocks a never-failing source of subsistence, and some leisure, which they employed 

 in extending the sphere of their acquirements. Some industry was then employed in the 

 construction of dwellings and the making of clothes ; the idea of property was admitted, and, 

 consequently, that of barter, together with wealth and difference of conditions, those fruitful 

 sources of the noblest emulation and the vilest passions ; but the necessity of searching for 

 fresh pastures, and of obeying the changes of the seasons, still doomed them to a wandering 

 life, and limited their improvement to a very narrow sphere. 



The multiplication of the human species, and its improvement in the arts and sciences, has 



* The numerous structural concurrences, all of which are required i necessary consequence of their imperfect means of communication), 

 to promote the intellectual developement of mankind, are worthy of and we perceive how immensely he is indebted also to these ac 



serious consideration with reference to the unaided faculties of other 

 animals. 



F'ir example, if the superior intelligence of Man were not seconded 

 by his admirable hands ( so vastly excelling those of the monkey 

 tribe), by his efficient vocal organ, &c, which are obvious to all as 

 mere physical conformations, indeed, but slight modifications of what 

 occur in other animals, — if, in short, he were reduced in these re- 

 spects to the condition of the I>og, how effectually would the privation 

 jperate to prevent that progressive advancement which, under exist- 

 ing circumstances, is achieved by the human race only. 



But, even grant to Man the use of all his organs, yet deprive him of 

 . e accumulated experience of his predecessors, and all mental culture 

 •evond the re.ult of his incidental experience (which in brutes is i 



cessones. 



On the other hand, however, a duly developed brain and commensu- 

 rate intelligence are required to enable Man to avail himself of the 

 advantages of his structure, for otherwise he appears doomed to re- 

 main stationary like a brute (as in the instance of the New Hol- 

 landers), even in the midst of civilization. There are also casualties, 

 as the general insecurity of life or property arising from situation or 

 tuisgovernment, which ordinarily suffice to repel the efforts of ad 

 /aneement, even of the most intelligent races. 



It would accordingly, then, appear, that the characteristic traits 

 of human intellect are mainly due to the co-operation of extrinsic 

 causes, and f the accessory aids afforded by physical conformation. 

 —En. 



