106 ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF MAN. 



have alluded to this strange neglect, in observing " qiielqu' 

 interet que nous ayons a nous connaitre nous memes, je ne 

 sais si nous ne connaissons pas mieux tout ce qui n'cst pas 

 nous *.'' Indeed, v^^hether we investigate the physical or the 

 moral nature of man, we recognize at every step the limited 

 extent of our knowledge, and are obliged to confess that ig- 

 norance which a Rousseau and a Buffon have not been 

 ashamed to avow : — " The most useful, and the least suc- 

 cessfully cultivated of all human knowledge, is that of man ; 

 and the inscription f on the temple of Delphi contained 

 a more important and difficult precept than all the books of 

 the moralists J." 



That the greatest ignorance has prevailed on this subject? 

 even in modern times, and among men of distinguished 

 learning and accuteness, is shewn by the strange notion 

 very strenuously asserted by Monboddo§ and Rousseau, 

 and firmly believed by many, that man and the monkey, or 

 at least the orang-utang, belong to the same species, and are 

 no otherwise distinguished from each other than by circum- 

 stances which can be accounted for by the different physi- 

 cal and moral agencies to which they have been exposed. 

 The former of these writers even supposes that the human 

 race once possessed tails 5 and he says, " The orang-utangs 

 are proved to be of our species, by marks of humanity that 

 I think are incontestable/' A poor compliment to our 

 species : as any one will think, who may take the trouble 



heads yet published. There are numerous heads in Denon, Voy. clans la 

 Haute et Basse Egypte, pi. 104—112 : and some in the unrivalled Descrip- 

 tion de VEgypte ; Etat moderne. A few otiier references will be found in 

 the course of this work. 



» " De la Nature de rplommc." JJist. Xai. 2. Tliis great Naturalist and 

 eloquent writer must be excepted from the remarks in the text. He treats 

 largely of man in the 2d and 3d vols, of the Historic naturelle, generate et 

 particulicre. 



f Tvu^i aeuvTOP 



+ Discom-s sur Vlnegalite ; Preface. 



§ On the Origin and Progress of Language, v. l.j and Ancient Metaphy- 

 sics^ V. 3, 



