6o8 APPENDIX. 



they choose of the "king of the gorillas," alias the black ape of Western 

 Africa, its true position on the page of natural history must cer- 

 tainly come to this, viz : when on a tree it is a paragon of perfec- 

 tion in the eyes of an Omnipotent Creator, but when on the ground 

 a bungled composition of nature. CHARLES WATERTON. 



WALTON HALL, October 20, 1861. 



The Gorilla. 



There seems to be a strange inclination amongst a certain class of 

 philosophers to lower man in the scale of creation and elevate the 

 brute. 



I stop not to investigate this wild and impious theory. Suffice it 

 to remark that reason is found in man alone. Thus, your favourite 

 dog has an ulcer on its foot. Place what plaster you may choose 

 upon it, the animal will tear it off as often as applied. Not so with 

 your child, who has attained the use of reason. You have taught it 

 submission to the doctor's orders. It retains its plaster, and the sore 

 gets well. 



Ovid, sweet bard, full twenty hundred years ago, drew a correct 

 line betwixt the rational and irrational world worthy of the Propa- 

 ganda itself. In writing on the creation, this delightful poet says : 

 " Sanctius his animal, mentisque capacius altae, deerat adhuc, et quod 

 dominare in csetera posset. Natus homo est" " There was wanting 

 a more perfect animal, one more capable of a lofty mind, and which 

 could hold dominion over all the rest : man was born." And con- 

 tinues the poet, " whilst all other animals have their downward vision 

 on the earth, man received a sublime countenance, and had orders to 

 gaze on the heavens, and to lift up his erect visage to the skies" 



" Pronaque cum spectant animalia csetera terram, 

 Os homini sublime dedit, caelumque tueri, 

 Jussit et erectos ad ccelum tollere vultus." 



Such testimony from a pagan poet ought to cause a blush on the 

 cheeks of modern philosophers, who are ever on the look-out to 

 counteract the arrangements of an all- wise Providence. Man only, 

 then, has received the gift of reason ; although we shall see in the 



