1 68 THE MONKE Y FAMIL K 



Up to this time, our ape had shown a suavity of manners and a con- 

 tinued decorum truly astonishing in any individual of his family ; I 

 say of his family because, in days now long gone by, when our inter- 

 course with Africa was much more frequent than it is at present, I 

 have known apes, baboons, and monkeys brought over from Guinea 

 to Guiana, notorious for their forbidding and outrageous habits. This 

 orang-outang, however, by his affability and correctness, appeared to 

 make amends for the sins of his brethren. " Nature seemed to have 

 done with her resentments in him ;" and I bade him farewell, impressed 

 with the notion that he was a perfect model of perfection, which might 

 be imitated with advantage even by some of our own species. But, 

 alas, I was most egregiously deceived in the good opinion which I had 

 entertained of him ; for scarcely had I retired half a dozen paces from 

 the late scene of action, when an affair occurred which beggars all 

 description. In truth, I cannot describe it ; I don't know how to de- 

 scribe it my pen refuses to describe it. I can only give an outline, 

 and leave the rest to be imagined. This interesting son of Borneo 

 advanced with slow and solemn gravity to the bars of his prison, and 

 took up a position exactly in front of the assembled spectators. The 

 ground upon which he stood was dry ; but immediately it became a 

 pool of water, by no means from a pure source. Ladies blushed and 

 hid their faces, whilst gentlemen laughed outright. I was scandalised 

 beyond measure, at this manifest want of good breeding on the part 

 of this shaggy gentleman from the forests of Borneo. He confirmed 

 for ever my early opinion, that, although apes naturally possess un- 

 common powers of mimicry and that these powers can be improved 

 to a surprising degree, under the tutelary hand of man nevertheless, 

 neither time, nor teaching, nor treatment, can ever raise apes even 

 to the shadow of an equality with the intellect of rational man. All 

 monkeys are infinitely below us aye, infinitely indeed. Rude, shame- 

 less, acd uncalculating beasts they are y and beasts they will remain 

 to the very end of time, unless some unforeseen catastrophe, ordered 

 by an all-wise Providence, should root out their whole race from the 

 face of the earth as we already imagine has been done with those 

 antediluvian animals, the fossil remains of which have been so 

 scientifically lectured upon, and so cleverly pourtrayed by the master- 

 hand of Mr Waterhouse Hawkins. 



