Chap. ir. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 25 



CHAP. II. 



Of the feveral Jleps of the human progrejfion from the Brute to the 

 Man. — The Author has feen three fiages of that progrejfion; — firft, 

 Peter the Wild Boy ; — fecondly, The Ourang Outang^ of ivhom the 

 Author has difcovercd fome fiHs, fmce he publifJoed upon thefuhjetl; 

 — thirdly, The Wild Girl in France. — She ivas an amphibious ani- 

 fual. — Several particulars concerning her mentioned. 



THE fubjedt of this chapter will be to mark fome of the firfi: 

 fteps of this wonderful progrefhon of man. Of thefe I 

 have iten with mine own eyes three, which I believe is what very 

 few now living can fay. The firft I faw, was in the pure natural 

 ftate when he was catched in the woods of Hanover, walking on 

 all four. It was Peter the Wild Boy, as he was called, whom I 

 have mentioned above*. I faw him twice, and I had a very particu- 

 lar account of him from an Oxford gentleman, who, at my defire, 

 went to fee him ; which account I have publifhed f. He had learned 

 to articulate but few words, though he was put to fchool, and no 

 doubt a great deal of pains beftowed to teach him to fpeak. But 

 this we Ihould not wonder at, when we confider what trouble it re- 

 quires to teach deaf men to fpeak, though born and brought up a- 

 mong us. Of his being a man, there never was the leaft uoubt en- 

 tertained ; and that he was not an ideot, or dcfcclive in natural ca- 

 VoL. IV. D pacity, 



• Page 21. 



•} Vol. III. p. 368. See slfo p. J 8. of the fame volume, where I have given the ac- 

 counts of him that were published in the newfpapers, iminediately after he was 

 brought to Enj^laad, 



