46 



A NEW HISTORY OF 



vening stains on the pages of natural history ; 

 still, I cannot refrain here, from entering a protest 

 against such palpable impossibilities as those 

 which I have just quoted. Had they been current 

 in Don Quixote's time, they would certainly have 

 been burnt in the court yard of that adventurers 

 house, by the curate and the barber, when these 

 sagacious inspectors committed to the devouring 

 flames, sundry romances which deserved no better 

 fate. 



So much for the supposed reasoning qualities,— 

 the bravery, — the knavery,— the trickery, and 

 generosity of apes, which are found in the old 

 world. Should these narratives of former voyages 

 be true, — and should modern travellers add a few 

 more facts to those already recorded, I do not see 

 why we should not at once acknowledge these 

 talented wild men of the woods, as members of 

 our own family, and pronounce them to be human 

 beings. It would be an interesting sight to see 

 them going hand, in hand with us, through the 

 meandering walks of civilised life. How delighted 

 I should be, to observe our Prime Minister walking 

 soberly along the streets of London, towards the 

 House of Commons, on important business, in 

 company with an old strapping ape from the far 

 distant wilds of Sumatra !' "nil mortalibus arduum 

 est." 



