MAMMALIA. 
48 
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 supply the want of power, intimate that monogamy is the natural condition 
of our species ; and as, wherever this kind of union exists, the sire participates in the education 
of his offspring, 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, consequently, 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 derived by 
isolated Man from his intelligence ; it has assisted him to tame or repulse other animals, to 
defend himself from the effects of climate, and thus enabled him to cover the earth with his 
species. 
In other respects, Man appears to possess nothing resembling instinct, no regular habit of 
industry produced by innate ideas ; all his knowledge is the result of his sensations, his 
observations, or of those of his predecessors. Transmitted by speech, increased by meditation, 
applied to his necessities and his enjoyments, they have given rise to all the arts. Language 
and letters, by preserving acquired kuowledge, are a source of indefinite perfection to his 
species. It is thus that he has acquired ideas, and made all nature contribute to his wants.* 
There are very different degrees of developement, however, in Man. 
The first hordes, compelled to live by hunting and fishing, or on wild fruits, and being 
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, advanced 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 
their journeys, and some natm’al objects whose properties were of use to them ; they gained the 
dog for a companion, because he had a natural inclination for the same kind of life. When 
they had succeeded in taming the herbivorous animals, they found in the possession of 
numerous flocks a never-failing source of subsistence, and some leisure, which they employed 
in extending the sphere of their acquirements. Some industry was then employed in the 
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 wandering 
life, and limited their improvement to a very narrow sphere. 
The multiplication of the human species, and its improvement in the arts and sciences, has 
* The numerous structural concurrences, all of which are required | 
to promote the intellectual developement of mankind, are worthy of ; 
serious consideration with reference to the unaided faculties of other 
animals. 
For example, if the superior intelligence of Man were not seconded 
by his admirable hands ( so vastly excelling those of the monkey 
tribe), by his efficient vocal organ, &c., which are 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 effectually would the privation 
operate to prevent that progressive advancement which, under exist- 
ing circumstances, is achieved by the human race only. 
But, even grant to Man the use of all his organs, yet deprive him of 
the accumulated experience of his predecessors, and all mental culture 
beyond the result of his incidental experience (which in brutes is a i 
I necessary consequence of their imperfect means of communication), 
I and we perceive how immensely he is indebted also to these ac- 
cessories. 
On the other hand, however, a duly developed brain and commensu- 
rate intelligence are required to enable Man to avail himself of the 
advantages of his structure, for otherwise he appears doomed to re- 
main stationary like a brute (as in the instance of the New Hol- 
landers), even in the midst of civilization. There are also casualties, 
as the general insecurity of life or property arising from situation or 
misgovernment, which ordinarily suffice to repel the efforts of ad- 
vancement, even of the most intelligent races. 
It would accordingly, then, appear, that the characteristic traits 
of human intellect are mainly due to the co-operation of extrinsic 
causes, and to the accessory aids afforded by physical conformation. 
-En. 
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