134 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book II. 



nations are as feeble as our children ; — That, therefore, they require 

 to be nourifhed and attended by the mother for three years, in which 

 time, the mother and child, betwixt them, would, as he thinks, 

 form a language, he from thence concludes, that the Oran Outan not 

 having the ufe of fpeech is not a Man, and that a ftate of pure Na- 

 ture, as he calls it, is a mere ideal ftate, which never had any real 

 exiftence * ; — Bontius, therefore, the Batavian phyfician, and o- 

 ther learned authors, who have told thofe ftories of the Oran 

 Outan, (which I believe, and from which, I think^ the conclu- 

 fion is certain, that he is a Man) were prejudiced ; they have exag- 

 gerated ; and when their exaggerations are retrenched, there remains 

 nothing but an ape. But tlie prejudices of thofe authors, or what 

 fhould tempt them to exaggerate, to prove that the Oran Outan is a 

 Man, I cannot difcover : For not one of them has aflerted that the 

 Oran Outan is a Man ; but, on the contrary, they feem to be of 

 BufFon's opinion, that Speech is eflential to Man ; and, particu- 

 larly, Bontius has faid of them, that they wanted nothing to make 

 them Men but Speech f . And the Briftol merchant, whofe account 

 of this Animal I have inferted at large in the Origin and Progrefs 

 of Language J, and which is the fulleft and moft diftind that we 

 find any where, is fo far from afferting that he is a Man, that he 

 exprefsly denies it, and fays that he is of a fpecies betwixt a Man 

 and a Monkey. But it is not upon the opinion of thefe authors that 

 I ground my belief of his humanity, but upon the fads which they 

 relate ; and which feemed fo ftrong to BufTon himfelf, that, if he 

 did not believe that they were exaggerated, and the relaters of them 

 were prejudiced, he would, I think, be of my opinion. 



But, 



* LufTon. Nat. Hi(t. Vol xiv. p. '35. 36. 



t Sec his Words quoted in Vol. i. of the Origin r.nd Piogrefs of Language, page 

 273. of the fecond edition. 



$ Ibid. p. 281. 



