S24f THE PHILOSOPHY 



nested to the apes_, who, like the former, have no tails. It 

 is wonderful that Linnaeus, and many other naturalifts, 

 ihould have overlooked this gradation in the fcale of ani- 

 mals, and maintained, that the ifland of Nicobar, and fome 

 other parts of the Eaft Indies, were inhabited by tailed men. 

 Before thofe animals whofe external figure has the greateft 

 refemblance to that of man, are ornamented, or rather de- 

 formed, with tails, there are feveral fhades of difcrimination. 

 The larger and fmaller orang-outangs, which are real brutes, 

 have no tails. Neither are the numerous tribes of apes fur- 

 nifhed with this appendage. But the believers in tailed men 

 gravely tell us, that there is nothing furprifing in this pheno- 

 menon, becaufe a tail is only a prolongation of the os ccccygis, 

 which is the termination of the back-bone. They confider 

 not, however, that, inftead of accounting for the exiftence 

 of tailed men, they do nothing more than fubftitute a learn- 

 ed circumlocution for the fimple word tail. It is here wor- 

 th^jof remark, that a philofopher, who has paid little atten- 

 tion to natural hillory, is perpetually liable to be deceived ; 

 and that a naturalift, I mean a nomenclator, without philo- 

 fophy, though he may be ufeful by mechanically marking 

 diftinclions, is incapable of enriching our minds with gener- 

 al ideas. A proper mixture of the two is beft calculated to 

 produce a real philofopher. From the orang-outangs and 

 apes to the baboons, the interval is hardly perceptible. The 

 true apes have no tails, and thofe of the baboons are very 

 fhort. The monkeys, who form the next link, have long 

 tails, and terminate this partial chain of imitative animals, 

 which have fuch a deteftable refemblance to the human 

 fram.e and manners. 



When examining the characters by which beings are dif^ 

 tinguilhable from each other, we perceive that fome of them 

 are more general, and include a greater variety than others. 

 From this circumftance all our diftributions into clafTes, or- 



