198 B1MANA. 



majority of naturalists, place him at the head of the mammiferous king- 

 dom, of which they consider him to constitute an integral part. Linnaeus, 

 indeed, associates Man in one great artificial group (the Primates) with 

 the Simiae and the Bats, observing, moreover, " nullum characterem hac- 

 tenus eruere potui, unde Homo a Simia internoscatur."* (Faun. Suec., 

 Pref. p. ii.) Hence, it is not surprising to find him wasting his attention 

 on a (supposed) sort of intermediate being, between civilized or savage 

 Man and the brute, " Homo ferus, tetrapus, mutus et hirsutus," 

 which he raises to the rank of a species, founded either upon the accidental 

 occurrence of idiots, which have strayed into the forests, and lived upon 

 roots, berries, and frogs, f or, as is more probable, upon the distempered 

 representations of the older voyagers, whose pages teem with marvellous 

 accounts " of long-armed, hairy men," or of men covered with yellowish 

 hair, navigating the ocean in boats, and bartering parrots in exchange for 

 iron ; a species as unreal as the superior kind of Ape dreamed of by 

 Lamarck, evolved, during the lapse of a countless succession of ages, out 

 of a monad, by the agency of two principles, a tendency to progressive 

 improvement, and the force of external circumstance ; and destined to a 

 farther degree of elevation. 



The arrangement of Linnaeus has, however, been adopted by several 

 distinguished naturalists ; and, among them, by Mr. Mac Leay, the talented 

 founder of a quinary, or circular system, differing in its principles from that 

 of Mr. Swainson, and equally advocated, by its supporters, as the true in- 

 terpretation of Nature. Mr. Mac Leay regards the Primates of Linnaeus 

 as one of his circles, and Man as forming part of that circle ; while, on 



possess but a single affinity, while the whole of organized matter presented a double one." Swainson, 

 On the Nat. Hist, and Class, of Quadrupeds, pp. 8, 9, 10. 



It may be observed, that it is upon the physical organization of living bodies, setting aside in- 

 stinctive or rational qualities, that the laws of arrangement are founded. Mr. Swainson's reasons 

 for the rejection of Man from the animal kingdom, because he cannot bring him into his circular 

 system without the violation of his assumed laws of duplex or triplex affinities, may be very 

 satisfactory to himself, but to others may appear nugatory. He may " know that every being in 

 creation has," and must have, "two, if not three, relations of affinity;" and that "if Man holds a 

 station in the series of unintelligent beings, he cannot enter into the circle of those that are intelli- 

 gent, because no being can occupy a station in two distinct circles ;" but these positions have never 

 been demonstrated ; and, until they be so, Man must be regarded as an animal, with a brain and 

 spinal chord, viviparous and mammiferous, great as is the hiatus between him and the Orang. 



* In allusion to this passage, and an expression of like import in the Systema Natures " Mirum 

 adeo parum diferre stultissimam Simiam a sapientissimo Homine, ut iste geodaetes naturae etiamnum 

 quaerendus qui hos limitet," Mr. Lawrence remarks " If these representations were correct, zoology 

 would not deserve the rank of a science." Essays, #c., p. 92. 



t Of these waifs and strays of the wreck of human nature, " withered leaves, which some rude 

 whirlwind has shaken off from the tree of civilization," as Mr. Ogilby elegantly and aptly terms 

 them, many accounts have been published from time to time ; insomuch, that a goodly volume might 

 be made up by their collection, but as destitute of interest as of facts imparting any new views 

 respecting the human species ; for, what "brilliant discoveries in psychology or anthropology" could be 

 expected from the cases of poor idiots ? Few will think, with Lord Monboddo, that the appearance 

 of Peter, the wild boy, was " a much more important circumstance than the discovery of the planet 

 Uranus ; or than if the astronomers, to the catalogue of stars already known, had added 30,000 new 

 ones." It is not from such beings that the existence of innate ideas can be determined ; or the 

 primeval condition of Man. 



