CLASS I. MAMMALIA. ORDER I. BIMANA, MAN. 29 



erect, and of applying his hands to the purposes for which 

 he now employs them. They have represented him as only 

 a more perlfect kind of ape ; and have endeavored to collect 

 stories of wild men, who have been found living like beasts iu 

 the midst of forests, destitute of speech and the arts of life ; 

 and of races of apes and monkeys who can walk erect, and 

 imitate the manners, gestures, and mode of life of men ; thus 

 endeavoring to prove a near connection and relationship be- 

 tween man. and these animals. 



It is undoubtedly the case, that man, in his external form, 

 resembles this order of animals much more nearly than any 

 other ; but he is yet by no means more nearly allied to them 

 in this respect, than they are to some others, which are yet 

 always considered of a distinct kind. The fact is, that since 

 the animal kingdom forms a series of individuals rising, by a 

 regular gradation, from a very humble and imperfect struc- 

 ture, up to a very perfect one, there will necessarily be cer- 

 tain points of resemblance between those which stand nearest 

 to each other in this series. Hence the apes, which stand 

 nearest to man, resemble him more than any other animal 

 does, but not so much as many other animals resemble them. 

 There is a greater difference between man and those species 

 which are next below him, than there is between any other 

 two species, which rank next to each other in the whole ani- 

 mal kingdom. So that there is, in- truth, no more reason for 

 saying that man is only an improved and educated ape, than 

 there is for saying that a bee is only an improved and educated 

 fly, a cow an improved sheep, or a horse a perfected ass. 



Man is distinguished from all other animals of the class 

 Mammalia, by his erect attitude, and his power of walking 

 upon two legs. This is naturally the case with no other one. 

 Some are capable of being taught to walk upon their hind 

 legs ; but they never do it with ease or from choice. The ape 

 and monkey have, it is true, hands, very like those of the 

 human species, which they are capable of using with great 

 address and effect ; but then they have not feet or legs which 

 enable them to walk upright : their feet are, in fact, formed 

 like hands, having a palm, and a distinct thumb, opposed to 

 the four fingers, and thus are able to grasp objects. The foot 

 of man is very different. It has nothing which does the office 

 of a thumb, and the sole does not perform that of a palm. It 

 is flat, inflexible, and fit only for the purpose of walking. 

 Apes, on the contrary, are adapted for climbing; and hence 

 the peculiarity of their structure, which enables them to grasp 

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