ANIMALS OF THE 



tmguish 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 ourang outang resembles marr 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 animal seems much wiser than it real- 

 ly 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 tram- 

 mels of human education, may be an admirable 

 object for human curiosity, but is very little ad- 

 vanced by all its learning in the road to its own 

 felicity. On the contrary, I have never seen 

 any of these long instructed animals that did 

 not, by their melancholy air, appear sensible of 

 the wretchedness of their situation. Its marks 

 of seeming sagacity were merely relative to us, 

 and not to the animal ; and all its boasted wis- 

 dom was merely of our own making. 



There is, in fact, another circumstance relative 

 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 at- 

 titude to human education. Almost all the tra- 



