Chap. V. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 133 



ther he be a credible author, or whether his veracity may not be 

 jiiftly fufpeded ? 3dly, Whether he be not contradicted by o- 

 ther authors more credible than he ? and, laftly. Whether what he 

 reports be not, by the nature of things, impoflible to be true ? 

 And if, upon this examination, I find that he had accefs to know 

 what he relates ;— -that he is a credible author ; — that he is not con- 

 tradided by any other author, or any fo credible ; — and, laftly, that 

 what he relates is neither impoflible, nor highly improbable ; I be- 

 lieve what hg fays, as he has delivered it, without adding to it or 

 taking from it. 



By this way of reafoning, I have brought myfelf to a perfed 

 conviction, that the Oran Outan is a human creature, as much as 

 any of us ; whereas Buffon, having formed a fyftem from theory 

 merely, not only without the afnftance of any faCts, but contra- 

 ry to faCts well attelled *, That the children of the moft favage 



nations 



* Keeping, a Swedifn traveller in the Eaft Indies, recommended to me by Lin* 

 naeus for his veracity and accuracy, (See Origin and Progrefs of Language, Vol. L 

 page 257- Second Edition), relates that, in the ifland of Ceylon, he faw a child of an 

 Oran Outan by a woman. This child, who was all covered with hair, as foon as he 

 was born run away, and clomb, firfl upon a pole, next upon a door, and then upon 

 an high tree, (Chap. 66.). Indeed, one fhould think that it needed no fadls to 

 prove that the child of a favage, fo much ftronger and more agile, healthier, and 

 longer-lived, than we, fhould be very difFerent, in point of ftrength and agility 

 from our children. — If the reader be convinced of this hCi related by Keoping, (and 

 how can we doubt of what a man of veracity fays he faw ?) we muft believe that the 

 Oran Outan propagates with women, and that he produces by them; fo that at leaft 

 he is as near to us as the horfe is to the afs. One thing is certain of him, being 

 attcfted by almoft all the travellers, that mention him, that he has a very great 

 inclination to copulate with the black women, and frequently ravifhcs them j See 

 Origin and Progrefs of Language, Vol. i. Page 285. of the Second Edition, 



