causes the .embryo of reafon improvable by the various degrees of educa-
OK VARI- . .
e t ie s . tion. I t might be proved from the organs and the gift o f fpeechin
men, who are alone capable o f this language o f reafon, that they
ought to be wholly diftinguifhed from all animals; as ■ every fpecies
o f the brute creation is deftitute o f the variety, power, and extent
o f voice and articulation : and though endued with paffions, and
poileffing the advantages o f a mechanical fenfat'ion, are lb-angers to
the exercile o f reafon, the formation o f ideas,'the language o f the
heart, and the refinement o f moral fentiment:* I could have re-
-conrfe to the Hallers, the Hunters, the Daubentons, the L e Cats,
the Meckels, the Campers, and alLthe great anatomifts o f this and
former ages, and with them prove from the ftru<fture o f the brains
and from the ikulls, from the occipital hole, from the connexion,
' movement, ftrudture and length o f the cervical vertebra, from the
ftruaure and .fhortnefs o f the pelvis, the breadth o f the ilia, the
narrownefs o f the ifchia, from the form and ftrudture of the acctabu-
, lum, and the head o f the femoral bones, from the.ftruaurea.nd connexion
o f the mufculus gluteus with thofe o f the legs, from the
whole compages and ftrufture o f the feet and their parts, from the
number and ftrudture o f our- hands, and many other wonders o f pur
frame, that man is the only creature o f the clafs which fuckle their
young ones, who is intended to walk eredt; f for though, perhaps,
..apes
* Mr. Court Jf .GtkU», Plan GeneiaUu Monde Priimtif, p. 10. ■
j * Btumeabub de genera bumani varietate nativa. GottinS, i 776, Svo. imi jr. Hukhr do
modern Argumento. Edinburg.' 1776, 8vo.
apes and monkies accidentally walk eredt; it is not, however, natural
to them, and they prefer crawling on all fours ; and though even
men in a wild ftate, have accuftomed themfelves to walk on all fours,,
it has been obferved, that this habit caufed a preternatural tumour
of the hypochondria. * But I ftioul'd Be obliged to repeat'ancT to
tranferibe the arguments; fb ably fet forth by the moft learned men,
which, though they, are' known' by the ftudious, nevertEelefs remain
as unknown to the pretenders o f learning, as i f they never
had been-publifhed : for it is the fate of fcience to be only fkimmed
by the witty fafhionable writers, but never to be thoroughly ftudied
and meditated: I cannot therefore enter into any ferious' argumentation
with the patrons and’ advocates o f therlortg exploded opinion,
that monkies are o f the fame fpecies with mankind. I appeal
rather to an argument taken from the better half o f our fpecies,.
the fair le x ;. we all affent.to the defeription which Adam gives o£
his partner;. a creature:
- - - - — - . - — So lovely fair,
That what, feem’d. fair in all the world, feem’d now’
Mean, or in her, fumm’d up, in her contain’d,
And in her looks; which from that time infus’d-
Sweetnefs into his. heart; unfelt. before,
And into all things from her air infpir’d,.
a The:
* Tulpius,'obf. I V . 10*.
-AU SES
F VARIETIES..