ARE MAN AND THE APE AKIN ? 471 



numerous, and their intelligence, at least in the largest genera, is so 

 superior to that of other animals, that, without admitting the opinion 

 of the ancient naturalists who considered them to be degraded or 

 degenerate men, nor that of certain modern writers, who look upon 

 Man as an improved Ape, one cannot fail to recognize between them 

 and us a species of kinship though it may be very difficult to dis- 

 tinguish the character and the degree which imposes itself upon 

 the understanding and the sentiment of every impartial and attentive 

 observer. The most impassive hunters who have killed Orangs, 

 Gibbons, Chimpanzees, and Gorillas, acknowledge that they have 

 never been able to conquer a painful impression almost, as it were, 

 a feeling of remorse when contemplating the semi-human agony 

 of their victims. This impression, though they may have succeeded 

 in persuading themselves to the contrary, is not the effect of an 

 empty or ridiculous sensibility. Everything in nature has its raison 

 d'etre its motive of existence ; the relations between the organ- 

 ism and the faculties are constant and undeniable ; and I find it 

 difficult to believe that the Creator can have formed without object 

 or purpose beings so extraordinarily similar to man, unless this 

 physical resemblance corresponds to a more or less definite moral 

 analogy. 



The illustrious and devout Linne, whom no one will suspect either 

 of materialism, or of forgetfulness of the dignity of man, has ranked 

 the Anthropomorphes in his genus Homo, with MAN, whom he speci- 

 fically distinguishes by his wholly exceptional faculties, and whom 

 he denominates Homo sapiens, that is, "the wise," or more correctly 

 speaking, the "thinking man." I must add that Linne 7 at a later 

 period renounced this quasi-assimilation, and that modern zoologists 

 have unanimously rejected it.* 



* In the foregoing paragraphs I have allowed the French author, M. Mangin, to 

 express his opinions in his own language. I must guard myself, however, from being 

 supposed to endorse them as a whole. Between the most intelligent Simise and Man a 

 wide gulf exists, which I see no reason for supposing the Ape will ever cross. And I 

 believe that his physical likeness to Man may be satisfactorily referred to that genrral 

 progressiveness in creation which we may trace from the lowest to the highest types. 



