86 THE RELATIONS OF MAN 



less from them than they differ from one another, and 

 hence must take his place in the same order with them ? 



Being happily free from all real, or imaginary, per- 

 sonal interest in the results of the inquiry thus set afoot, 

 we should proceed to weigh the arguments on one side and 

 on the other, with as much judicial calmness as if the 

 question related to a new Opossum. "We should endea- 

 vour to ascertain, without seeking either to magnify or 

 diminish them, all the characters by which our new Mam- 

 mal differed from the Apes ; and if we found that these 

 were of less structural value, than those which distinguish 

 certain members of the Ape order from others universally 

 admitted to be of the same order, we should undoubtedly 

 place the newly discovered tellurian genus with them. 



I now proceed to detail the facts which seem to me to 

 leave us no choice but to adopt the last mentioned course. 



It is quite certain that the Ape which most nearly ap- 

 proaches man, in the totality of its organization, is either 

 the Chimpanzee or the Gorilla ; and as it makes no prac- 

 tical difference, for the purposes of my present argument, 

 which is selected for comparison, on the one hand, with 

 Man, and on the other hand, with the rest of the Pri- 

 mates,* I shall select the latter (so far as its organization 

 is known) — as a brute now so celebrated in prose and 

 verse, that all must have heard of him, and have formed 

 some conception of his appearance. I shall take up as 

 many of the most important points of difference between 

 man and this remarkable creature, as the space at my dis- 

 posal will allow me to discuss, and the necessities of the 

 argument demand ; and I shall inquire into the value and 



* We are not at present thoroughly acquainted with the brain of the Go 

 rilla, and therefore, in discussing cerebral characters, I shall take that of the 

 Chimpanzee as my highest term among the Apes. 



