Chap. I. A K T I E >-! T M E T A P H Y S I C S. 123 



7hus I think It is evident, that men, who have the fenfe of 

 hearing, learn to fpeak by imitation, and not imitation only, 

 but much pradice ; for that is abfolutely neceflary to give 

 us the ready ufe of fo complicated an engine as our vocal in- 

 ftrument. But before any art can be learned, it muft be invent- 

 ed ; and if the pradice of it be fo difficult to be learned 

 after it is invented, tije invention of it muft be much more diffi- 

 cult. It is, therefore, not to be wondered that Peter the Wild 

 Boy could not fpeak when he was caught, or that the Orang Ou- 

 tang does not fpeak. But the wonder would have been, and in- 

 deed I ftiould have thought it a miracle, if either Peter had fpoken 

 when he was firft catched, or if the Orang Outangs had the ufe of 

 language in the ftate in which they live; which is only in herds, not 

 in a fociety fo formed and regulated as could produce the invention 

 of fo difficult an art as language. 



I have heard it faid, that if the Orang Outang be a man, he is 

 the only man that has as yet been found, who has not the ufe of 

 fpeech. If that were true, the argument would not be conclu- 

 five ; for it would only prove that he is the only man that hi- 

 therto has been found in the natural ftate. But the fad is not 

 true ; for Diodorus SIculus informs us *, that there was a Savage 

 people that inhabited a country near the Red Sea, who lived 

 in herdsj copulated promifcuoufly, and had not the ufe of fpeech. 

 And what muft have made this people much taken notice of is a- 

 nother particular that he relates concerning them, and, I think, a 

 more extraordinary thing ftill ; namely, that they lived without the 

 ufe of water, for which he accounts from their food being raw 

 fifti. In that way fome barbarous people have been known to live 

 at fea for many days without frefh water. And a gentleman whoai 

 I know, of the name of Graham, fubfifted for fome months in a 



Qj2 country 



* Lib. 3. cap. iS. 



