398 



ANIMALS OF 



OF THE MONKEY KIND, THE ELEPHANT, RHINOCEROS, 



&c. &c. 



CHAPTER LV1II. 



ANIMALS OF THE MONKEY KIND. 



QUADRUPEDS may be considered as a 

 numerous group, terminated on every side by 

 some that but in part deserve the name. On 

 one quarter we see a tribe covered with quills, 

 or furnished with wings, that lift them among 

 the inhabitants of the air ; on another, we be- 

 hold a diversity clothed with scales and shells, 

 to rank with insects ; and still, on a third, we 

 see them descending into the waters, to live 

 among the mute tenants of that element. We 

 now come to a numerous tribe that, leaving 

 the brute creation, seem to make approaches 

 even to humanity ; that bear an awkward re- 

 semblance of the human form, and discover 

 some faint efforts at intellectual sagacity. 



Animals of the monkey class are furnished 

 with hands instead of paws ; their ears, eyes, 

 eyelids, lips, and breasts, are like those of 

 mankind ; their internal conformation also 

 bears some distant likeness ; and the. whole 

 offers a picture that may well mortify the pride 

 of such as make their persons alone the princi- 

 pal object of their admiration. These ap- 

 proaches, however, are gradual ; and some 

 bear the marks of this our boasted form more 

 strongly than others. 



In the Ape a kind we see the whole external 

 machine strongly impressed with the human 



a Caubasson relates a laughable story of an ape, which 

 became so attached to him, as to be desirous of accom- 

 panying him wherever he went. Once the animal secretly 

 followed the father to church, where silently mounting on 

 the top of the sounding-board above the pulpit, he lay per- 

 fectly still till the sermon began. He then crept to the 

 edge, and overlooking the preacher, imitated all his ges- 

 tures in so grotesque a manner, that the whole congrega- 

 tion were unavoidably excited to laugh. The father, sur- 

 prised at this ill-timid levity, reproved his audience. The 



likeness, and capable of the same exertions : 

 these walk upright, want a tail, have fleshy 

 posteriors, have calves to their legs, and feet 

 nearly like ours. 



In the Baboon kind we perceive a more dis- 

 tant approach to the human form ; the quad- 

 ruped mixing in every part of the animal's 

 figure : these generally go upon all-fours ; but 

 some, when upright, are as tall as a man ; 

 they have short tails, long snouts, and are pos- 

 sessed of brutal fierceness. 



The Monkey kind are removed a step fur- 

 ther: these are much less than the former, 

 with tails as long, or longer, than their bodies, 

 and flatfish faces. 



Lastly, the Maki and Opossum kind, seem 

 to lose all resemblance of the human figure, 

 except in having hands; their noses are length- 

 ened out, like those of quadrupeds, and every 

 part of their bodies totally different from the 

 human ; however, as they grasp their food, or 

 other objects, with one hand, which quadru- 

 peds cannot do, this single similitude gives 

 them an air of sagacity, to which they have 

 scarcely any other pretensions. 



From tin's slight survey, it may be easily 

 seen that one general description will not serve 

 for animals so very different from each other : 



reproof failed in its effect, for the congregation still laugh- 

 ed, and the preacher in the warmth of his zeal redoubled 

 his actions and his vociferations. These the ape so ex- 

 actly imitated, that all respect for their pastor was swal- 

 lowed up in the scene before them, and they burst out 

 into a loud and continued roar of laughter. A friend of 

 the preacher at length pointing out to him the cause of 

 this improper conduct, it was with the utmost difficulty he 

 could c.mimand a serious countenance, while he ordered 

 the servants of the church to take the ape away. 



