t8 MAMMALIA. 



gradually obstructed ; the solids become rigid; and after a life more or less prolonged, more or 

 less agitated, more or less painful, old age arrives, with decrepitude, decay, and death. Man 

 rarely lives beyond a hundred years ; and most of the species, either from disease, accidents, 

 or merely old age, perish long before that term. 



The child needs the assistance of its mother much longer than her milk, whence results an 

 education intellectual as well as physical, and a durable mutual attachment. The nearly equal 

 number of individuals of the two sexes, the difficulty of supporting more than one wife, when 

 wealth does not suppl)' the want of power, intimate that monogamy is the natural concbtion 

 of our species ; and as, wherever this kind of union exists, the sire participates in the education 

 of his ofTspring, the length of time required for that education allows the birth of others, 

 whence the natural perpetuity of the conjugal state. From the long period of infantile weak- 

 ness results domestic subordination, and, consccjueutly, the order of society at large, as the 

 young persons which compose the new families continue to preserve with their parents those 

 tender relations to which they have so long been accustomed. This disposition to mutual 

 assistance multiplies to an almost unlimited extent those advantages previously demed by 

 isolated Man from bis intelligence ; it has assisted him to tame or repidse other animals, to 

 defend himself from the effects of ehmatc, ami thus enabled him to cover the earth uith his 

 species. 



In other respects, Man appears to possess notliing resembling instinct, no regular h.abit of 

 industry produced by innate ideas; all nis knowledge is the result of his sensations, bis 

 observations, or of those of his predecessors. Transmitted by speech, increased by meditation, 

 apjilicd to his necessities and his enjoyments, they have given rise to all the arts. Language 

 and letters, by preserving acquired knowledge, are a source of indefinite perfection to bis 

 species. It is thus that he has acquired ideas, and nade all nature contribute to his « ants.* 



There are very different degrees of developement, however, m Man. 



Tlie first hordes, compelled to live bj' hunting and iishing, or on wild fiiiits, and Ijcing 

 obliged to devote all their time to search for the means of subsistence, and not being able to 

 multiply greatly, because that would have destroyed the game, advanccil but slowly ; their 

 arts were limited to the construction of huts and canoes, to covering themselves with skins, 

 and fabricating arrows and nets ; they observed such stars only as served to direct them in 

 tlieir journeys, and some natural objects whose properties were of use to tliem ; they gained the 

 dog for a companion, because he bad a natural inclination for the same kind of life. Wlien 

 they bad succeeded in taming the herljivorous animals, they found in the po^scssion of 

 numerous flocks a never-failing som'ce of subsistence, and some leisure, which they emjjloved 

 in extending the sphere of tlieir acquirements. Some industry was then employed m tlie 

 construction of dwellings and the making of clothes ; the idea of property was admitted, and, 

 consequently, that of barter, together with wealth and difference of conditions, those fruitful 

 sources of the noblest emulation and the vilest passions ; but the necessity of searching for 

 fresh pastures, and of obeying the changes of the seasons, still doomed them to a ivanderinrr 

 bfe, and limited tlieir improvement to a very narrow sphere. 



The multiplication of the human species, and its improvement in the arts and sciences, has 



- 'n.t nururruus slnirt.ur^l roiuurrcnccs, all nf ,vl,icli are roqLiireil , necessary CLUiscqaiince of llirir impcTfect means of enniniuiiicatioii), 

 ti> piniiioLe llie iiitilkelual ilevelopeiueiU of marikitjd, are worthy of anil \vc perceive bow imnieii;.elv lie is iiidebicii al,e> lo these ac 

 isiileraiioii " ilh refcreiLee to the unaidctl taeultics of other ressorics. 



On the otlicr hand, however, a duly developed brain and corr.mensu- 

 ite intetliffcnec are required to enable Man to avail himself of th" 

 Ivantaijes of his strueture, for otherwise he appears doomed t^ '"- 

 ifiiii stationary like a brute (as in the instance of the ^^■^'' Uol- 

 .nders). even in the midst of civilization. There are a'^'^ casualties, 

 i the general insecurity of life or property arisini-'^'^"' situation or 

 lisKOvernment, which ordinarily sufliec to -P'^' ^^<^ etTorls of ad 

 tneenicnt, eveti of the most intelligent "^'es. 



It would aeeordingly, then, apn-^^. tl"^t the charaetcristie traits 

 fhonian intellect are mainly 'UC to the co-operation nf cMiiosic 

 luses, and t ■ *he acceasi-.y aids atfonlcd by physical eoutoriuation. 



For example, if the superior intelligence of Man were not eeeonded 

 by his admirable hands (so vastly e.-ecelling tiiose of the monkey 

 tribe), l)y his efficient vocal organ, &e., tvliieh arc obvious to all as 

 mere physical conformations, indeed, but slight modifications of what 

 occur in other animals, — if, in short, he were reduced in these re- 

 spects to the condition of the Dog, how elfeetually ivould the privation 

 jperate to prevent ttiat progressive advancement wbieli, under exist- 

 ing circumstances, is achieved by the human race only. 



But, even grant to Man the use of all his organs, yet dcpri,e him of 

 ..e accumulated experience of his predece-sors, and all iiivntal culture 

 •eyond the result Of his iiiciileiital experience (wliicli in lirulcs is a 



