THE MONKEY KIND. 



403 



detestation. In Borneo, where this animal 

 has been said to come to its greatest perfec- 

 tion, the natives hunt it in the same manner 

 as they pursue the elephant or the lion, while 

 its resemblance to the human form procures it 

 neither pity nor protection. The gradations 

 of nature in the other parts of nature are minute 

 and insensible ; in the passage from quadru- 

 peds to fishes we can scarcely tell where the 

 quadruped ends and the fish begins ; in the 

 descent from beasts to insects we can hardly 

 distinguish the steps of the progression ; but 

 ,in the ascent from brutes to man, the line is 

 strongly drawn, well marked, and unpassable. 

 It is in vain that the ouran outang resembles 

 man in form, or imitates many of his actions ; 

 he still continues a wretched, helpless creature, 

 pent up in the most gloomy part of the forest, 

 and, with regard to the provision for his own 

 happiness, inferior even to the elephant or the 

 beaver in sagacity. To us, indeed, this ani- 

 mal seems much wiser than it really is. As 

 we have long been used to measure the sagacity 

 of all actions by their similitude to our own, 

 and not their fitness to the animal's way of 

 living, we are pleased with the imitations of 

 the ape, even though we know they are far 

 from contributing to the convenience of its 

 situation. An ape, or a quadruped, when 

 under the trammels of human education, may 

 be an admirable object for human curiosity, 

 but is very little advanced by all its learning 

 in the road to its own felicity. On the con- 

 trary, I have never seen any of these long- 

 instructed animals that did not, by their melan- 

 choly air, appear sensible of the wretchedness 

 of their situation. Its marks of seeming saga- 

 city were merely relative to us, and not to the 

 animal; and all its boasted wisdom was merely 

 of our own making. 



There is, in fact, another circumstance re- 

 lative to this animal, which ought not to be 

 concealed. I have many reasons to believe 

 that the most perfect of the kind are prone, 

 like the rest of the quadruped creation, and 

 only owe their erect attitude to human educa- 

 tion. Almost all the travellers who speak of 

 them, mention their going sometimes upon all- 

 fours, and sometimes erect. As their chief 

 residence is among trees, they are without 

 doubt usually seen erect while they are climb- 

 ing ; but it is more than probable that their 

 efforts to escape upon the ground are by run- 

 No. 35 & 36. 



ning upon the hands and feet together. Schou- 

 ten, who mentions their education, tells us that 

 they are taken in traps, and taught in the 

 beginning to walk upon their hind legs ; which 

 certainly implies that in a state of nature they 

 run upon all-fours. Add to this, that, when 

 we examine the palms of their hands and the 

 soles of their feet, we find both equally callous 

 and beaten ; a certain proof that both have 

 been equally used. In those hot countries, 

 where the apes are known to reside, the soles 

 of the negroes' feet, who go barefoot, arc 

 covered with a skin above an inch thick ; 

 while their hands are as soft as those of an 

 European. Did the apes walk in the same 

 I manner, the same exercise would have furnish- 

 ed them with similar advantages, which is not 

 the case. Besides all this, I have been assur- 

 ed by a very credible traveller, that these ani- 

 mals naturally run in the woods upon all-fours; 

 and when they are taken, their hands are tied 

 behind them, to teach them to walk upright. 

 This attitude they learn after some time ; and, 

 thus instructed, they are sent into Europe to 

 astonish the speculative with their near ap- 

 proaches to humanity, while it is never con- 

 sidered how much is natural, and how much 

 has been acquired in the savage schools of 

 Benin and Angola. 



The animal next to these, and to be placed 

 in the same class, is the APE, properly so call- 

 ed, or the PITHEKOS of the ancients. This is 

 much less than the former, being not above a 

 foot and a half high, but walks erect, is with- 

 out a tail, and is easily tamed. 



Of this kind also is the GIBBON, so called by 

 Buffon, or the LONG-ARMED APE, which is a 

 very extraordinary and remarkable creature. 

 It is of different sizes, being from fout feet to 

 two feet high. It walks erect, is without a 

 tail, has a face resembling that of a man, with 

 a circle of bushy hair all round the visage ; 

 its eyes are large, and sunk in its head ; its 

 face tanned, and its ears exactly proportioned. 

 But that in which it chiefly differs from all 

 others of the monkey tribe, is the extraordi- 

 nary length of its arms, which when the ani- 

 mal stands erect are long enough to reach the 

 ground; so that it can walk upon all-fours, 

 and yet keep its erect posture at the same 

 time. This animal, next to the ouran outang 

 and the ape, most nearly resembles mankind, 

 not only in form, but in gentle manners and 



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