ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF MAN. 107 



of paying a morning visit to the orang-utang at Exeter 

 Change. 



Misled by this strange and fanciful notions of the unna- 

 tural condition of man in society, Rousseau has even ap- 

 plied the observations of travellers concerning animals to 

 man 5 and if we think fit to believe with him, that he knew 

 better what they saw than they did themselves, we may ar- 

 rive at this conclusion concerning the existence of wild 

 men in an insulated and solitary state, similar to that of 

 wild beasts *. 



The completely unsupported assertions of Monboddo 

 and Rousseau only shew that they were equally unac- 

 quainted with the structure and functions of men and mon- 

 keys ; not conversant with zoology and physiology, and 

 therefore entirely destitute of the principles on which alone 

 a sound judgment can be formed concerning the natural ca- 

 pabilities and destiny of animals, as well as the laws accord- 

 ing to which certain changes of character, certain departures 

 from the original stock, may take place. 



Mankind in general, the unlearned and the unscientific, 

 do not commit the gross mistake of confounding together 

 man and animals : this distinction, at least, so clear and ob- 

 vious to common observation and unprejudiced common 

 sense, is preserved in their short division of the animal king- 

 dom into man and brutes. 



Other writers, who expatiate with vast delight on what they 

 call the regular gradation or chain of beings, and discover 

 great wisdom of the Creator, and great beauty of the crea- 

 tion, in the circumstance, that nature makes no leaps, but 



* *' Toutes ces observations sur les varl^t<?s que mille causes peuvent pro- 

 duire et ont prodoit en effet dans I'espece humalne, me font douter si divers 

 animaux semblables aux hommes, pris par des voyageurs pour dcs betes sans 

 beaucoup d'examcn ou a cause de quelques diflKrences qu'ils remarquoient 

 dans la conformation exterieure, ou seulement parce que ces animaux n4 par- 

 lolent pas, ne seroicnt point en effet de veritables homines sauvages, dont la 

 race dispers^e ancienneraent dans les bois n'avoit en occasion de d^velopper 

 aucune de ses facultes virtuelles, n'avoit acquis aucun degrd de perfection, et 

 se trouvoit encore dans I'^tat primitif de nature." Li^, cit. 



