418 lliSTOllY OF 



ot 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 ad- 

 mirable object for human curiosity, but is very little advanced 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 wisdom 

 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 be- 

 lieve that the most perfect of the kind are prone, like the rest 

 of the quadruped creation, and only owe their erect attitude to 

 human education. Almost all the travellers who speak of them, 

 Tiention their going sometimes upon all-fours, and sometimes 

 erect. As their chief )-esidence is among trees, they are without 

 doubt usually seen erect while they are climbing ; but it is more 

 than probable that their efforts to escape upon the ground are by 

 running upon the hands and feet together. Schouten, 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 bare-foot, are covered with a 

 skin above an inch thick ; while their hands are as soft as those 

 of a European. Did the apes walk in the same manner, the 

 same exercise would have furnished them with similiar advan- 

 tages, which is not the case. Besides all this, I have been as- 

 sured by a very credible traveller, that these animals 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 specu- 

 lative with their near approacb'^s to humanity, while it is never 



