OF NATURAL HISTORY. 52^ 



In defcending the fcale of animation, the next ftep, it Is humilia- 

 ting to remark, is very fhort. Man, in his loweft condition, is evi- 

 dently linked, both in the form of his body and the capacity of his 

 mind, to the large and fmall orang-outangs. Thefe again, by an- 

 other flight gradation, are connected to the apes, v?ho, like the for- 

 mer, have no tails. It is wonderful that Linnaeus, and many other 

 naturalifts, ftiould 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 deformed, with tails, there are feve- 

 ral fhades of difcrimination. The larger and fmaller orang-outangs, 

 which are real brutes, have no tails. Neither are the numerous 

 tribes ©f apes furnifhed with this appendage. But the believers in 

 tailed men gravely tell us, that there is nothing furprifing in this 

 phenomenon, becaufe a tail is only a prolongation of the os coccygis, 

 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 learned circumlocution for 

 the fimple word tail. It is here worthy of remark, that a philofo- 

 pher, who has paid little attention to natural hiftory, is perpetually 

 liable to be deceived ; and that a naturalift, I mean a nomenclator, 

 without philofophy, though he may be ufeful by mechanically mark- 

 ing diftindions, is incapable of enriching our minds with general 

 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 

 inteival 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 

 frame and manners. 



3 U 2 Whea 



