Chap. III. APPENDIX. 365 



true what Ariftotle has faid *, that it is the Mind chiefly, or Inter- 

 nal Principle, which diftinguiflies the fpeciefes of animals from one 

 another, I afk what was wanting to denominate this animal a Man : 

 Buffon acknowledges that he had not only the outward form of a 

 man, but the inward principle, being of a difpofition and charaQer 

 altogether different from a monkey, ape, or baboon, as he has ex- 

 plained at fome length f* What objedtion, then, could be to his 

 humanity, except that, being two years of age, he did not fpeak ? 

 But, do the children of that age, among us, fpeak, though brought 

 up among perfons that fpeak, and taught as much as their mothers 

 and nurfes can teach them ? Is It pofFible to believe, if this infant 

 had not died about the age of three, but had lived to be a man, and 

 had been put to the fchool of Mr Braidwood among us, or of the 

 Abbe de L'Epee in Paris, or without fuch fchooling, that he would 

 not have learned to fpeak by mere imitation, though, it is likely, 

 more flowly than our children do, as being of a favage and dumb 

 race, and confequently not inheriting that aptitude and facility to 

 learn to fpeak, which our children have. 



And here I mud obferve, that thofe v^^ho have contrived this new 

 definition of man, by which they msike /peaking to be eflential to 

 him, muft maintain that articulation is natural to man ; for, if they 

 allow it to be artificial, and to be acquired only by teaching or imi- 

 tation, then, when we fay that a man does not fpeak, we only 

 mean that he has not had an opportunity of being taught : And, e- 

 ven if we fhould fuppofe that there were fome defed in his organs 

 of pronunciation, or in his heai'ing, (which is common enough 

 at prefent, and is becoming more and more fo every day), I think 

 it would be hard to refufe him the appellation of a man, if he 

 fliowed that he had the underllanding of a man. But the Orang 

 Outang has no fuch defed:, either in his organs of pronunciation, 

 or hearing, as has been found upon diffedion ; and one of them 



I 



* See Vol. i. p. 341. of Origin and Progrefs of Language, Second Edition. 



I Buffon, ubi fiipra. 



I 



