comte de Georges Louis Leclerc Buffon

“ What a difference from our sheep, who scarcely have any power to subsist in flocks, and who cannot defend themselves even by numbers; who are unable to withstand the rigors of our winters without shelter, and who would all perish if it were not for the care and protection of man? In the hottest climates of Africa and Asia, the muflon, who is the common father of all the races of sheep, seems to have suffered less degeneration than in any other country; for, though reduced to a domestic state, he has preserved his stature and his hair, and has only suffered a loss in the size of his weapons. ”

“ Man himself, although a single species, and infinitely removed from that of all other animals, yet being only of a middle size, has more approximations than the larger kinds. We shall find in the history of the orang-outang that if we were only to attend to the figure, we might look on that, animal either as the termination of the human species, or the commencement of the ape; because, except the intellect, he is not deficient in any one thing which we possess, and because, in his body, he differs less from man than from the other animals to which we have given the denomination of apes. ”

“ Now this necessary habitude, so long continued between the mother and the child, is sufficient to communicate to it all that she possesses; and though we should falsely suppose, that this mother, in a state of nature, possesses not any one gift, not even that of speech, would not this long habitude with her child produce a language? Thus this state of pure nature, wherein we suppose man to be without thought and speech, is imaginary, and never had existence. This needful and long intercourse of parents with their children produces society in the midst of a desart. ”

“ In almost every other part, as well externally as internally, there is so perfect a resemblance to those of the human species, that we cannot compare them without expressing our wonder and admiration, that from such a similar conformation and organization the same effects are not produced. For example, the tongue, and all the organs of the voice, are exactly the same as in man, and yet this animal does not speak; the brain is absolutely of the same form and proportion, and yet it does not think. ”

“ I acknowledge, if we were forced to judge by external appearance alone, the ape might be taken for a variety in the human species. The Creator has not formed man’s body on a model absolutely different from that of the mere animal; he has comprehended his figure, as well as that of every other animal, under one general plan, but at the same time that he has given him a material form, similar to that of the ape, he infused this animal body with a divine spirit. ”

“ Now this time of education being so short, its effects must be very small; and it is even astonishing that animals acquire in two months whatever is necessary for their use during the rest of life: and if we suppose a child, in an equal space of time, should become sufficiently formed and strong to leave its parents, and never to return to them for assistance, would there be any sensible difference between this child and the brute animal? ”

“ Time is required for man to receive the tincture of the atmosphere, and still more for the earth to transmit its qualities to him. Ages, joined to a constant use of the same nutriment, is necessary to influence the form of the features, the size of the body, the substance of the hair, and to produce those internal alterations which, being afterwards perpetuated by generation, have become the general and constant characters, by which the races, and even the different nations, which compose the human race, are distinguished. ”

“ Does the ape imitate the human species from inclination, or from possessing an innate capacity of performing those actions without choice or exertion? I willingly appeal to all those who have observed this animal without prejudice, and I am convinced they will agree with me, that there is nothing voluntary in their imitation. The monkey having arms and hands, makes use of them as we do, but without any idea of copying our example. The similitude of his limbs and organs necessarily produces motions resembling ours; being formed like man he must be enabled to move like him ”

“ Society being formed, the education of the child is no longer individual, for then the parents communicate to it not only what they possess from Nature, but also what they have received from their ancestors, and from the society of which they form a part. It is no longer a communication between detached individuals, confined like animals to the transmission of simple faculties, but an institution of which the whole species partakes, and whose produce constitutes the bond and basis of society. ”

“ What I call an Ape is an animal with a flat visage, and without a tail, whose teeth, fingers, nails, and hands, resemble those of the human species, and who also walks upright on its two feet. This definition, drawn from the nature of the animal, and its resemblance to man, will exclude every animal that has a tail, or a long snout, crooked or pointed claws, or whose nature obliges them to walk more willingly on four feet than on two. ”

“ It is generally admitted by travellers that the heads of these sea-bears are so hard that a blow which would fell an ox does not stun them, and that their voice is more like the barking of a dog than that of a common bear. ”

“ He leaps as nimbly as a monkey, and goes from one tree to another with such address and agility and passes over a great space in so short a time, that he may be said only to appear and disappear; he is ferocious in his nature, but flees at the sight of man, unless irritated, or his nest attacked, when he flies at the offender, and bites and tears nearly like the panther.”
Neither captivity, nor good nor bad treatment, will tame or soften the ferocity of this animal. ”

“ Wild animals not being immediately subject to the empire of man, are not liable to such great alterations as the domestic kinds. Their nature seems to vary according to different climates, though they are no where degraded. If they were at liberty to chuse their climate and food these alterations would be still less; but as they have at all times been hunted and exiled by man, or even by those quadrupeds which have greater strength, and are more ferocious, the greatest part of them have been obliged to quit their native country, and to live in climates less favourable to their constitutions. ”

“ As his nature is vivacious, his temperament warm, his disposition petulant, and none of his affections have been polished by education, all his habitudes are excessive, and more resemble the actions of a lunatic than those of a man, or even those of a peaceable animal: from the same reason we find him indocile, and receiving with difficulty the impressions we wish him to imbibe. He is insensible to kindness, and only to be rendered obedient through fear of chastisement. ”

“ In general, the influence of food is greater, and produces more sensible effects on those animals which feed on herbage and fruits. Those that live only upon flesh, vary less from that cause than from the influence of climate; because flesh is an aliment, already assimilated to the nature of the carnivorous animal that devours it; whereas grass being the first product of the earth, possesses all its properties, and immediately transmits the terrestrial qualities to the animal.
Thus the dog on which food seems to have but slight influence is, of all carnivorous animals, the most various species ”

“ Sometimes they suffered us to approach so nigh, that I thought myself certain of securing them, but when I made the attempt, the one I meant to seize would make a sudden leap, spring above ten paces from me, climb up a tree with the greatest agility, and then looking down upon us with perfect indifference, seem to derive pleasure from our astonishment. ”

“ The ape, therefore, notwithstanding his resemblance to the human form, is a brute, and so far from being second in our species, he is not even the first in the order of animals, because he is not the most intelligent among them; therefore it is only on account of the corporeal resemblance that prejudice has been formed in favour of the great faculties of the ape. He resembles man it is said both externally and internally, and therefore he must not only imitate us, but also of his own accord, act in the same manner as we do. ”

“ His voice is soft, and resembles more the chaunting of a little bird, than the cry of a quadruped. He is very delicate, and cannot be transported from America to Europe, without the greatest precaution. ”

“ Who will ever be able to tell in what the organization of an idiot differs from that of another man? yet the defect is certainly in the material organs, since the idiot has a soul like another person. Now, since in mankind, where the whole structure is entirely conformable, and perfectly similar, a difference so trifling as to be entirely imperceptible is sufficient to destroy thought, we must not be astonished that it never appears in the ape, which has not the necessary principle. ”

“ He can counterfeit every motion of the human species, and yet [136] cannot perfectly perform one single act; which may possibly be owing to a defect of education, or perhaps yet more to an error in our judgment. You unjustly compare, it may be said, an ape, who is a native of the forests, with the man who resides in polished society. To form a proper judgment between them, a savage man and an ape should be viewed together; for we have no just idea of man in a pure state of nature. ”

“ He observed, by taking the body of man as the physical model of every living animal, and by comparing and examining every living animal in their several parts, that the form of every thing that breathes is nearly the same; that the anatomy of a man and an ape are similar; that every animal has the same organization, the same senses, the same viscera, the same bones, the same flesh, the same motion of the fluids, and the same action in the solids. In all of them he has found a heart, veins, and arteries; the same organs of circulation, respiration, digestion, nutrition, and secretion ”

“ The wolf, the fox, the jackal, and the dog, though they approach very nigh each other, form four distinct species. The varieties in the dog species are very numerous; the greatest part of which seems to proceed from their domestic state, to which they have been so long subjected. Man has multiplied the race in this species by mixing the great with the small, the handsome with the ugly, the long haired with the short, &c. But there are many varieties in the dog species, independently of those races produced by the care of man, which seem to derive their origin from the climate. ”

“ By the power of art, and length of time, our statuaries form a figure which externally resembles the object proposed; each point of this surface requires a thousand combinations. Their genius travels over as many lines as there are lineaments in the figure, and the least false step would deform it. ”

“ Even among brute animals, though deprived of the thinking principle, those whose education is the longest are also those which seem to have the greatest share of intelligence: the elephant, who takes the longest time in completing its growth, and which requires the assistance of its mother for the whole of the first year, is also the most intelligent animal. ”

“ But the callosities of the baboons and monkies are of a dry and healing nature, as they do not proceed from the oppression of any superabundant weight, but, on the contrary, are only the effects of natural habits, for these animals remain longer in a sitting than in any other posture. The callosities of the monkey are like the double skin on the sole of a man’s foot. ”

“ The copulation of these animals cannot be effected on land, since they are unable to walk, but it is on the contrary performed in shallow water. Binet says, that the manati is as big as an ox, and as round as a tun; that his head is small, and his tail short; that his skin is rough and thick like that of an elephant; that there are some of these animals so large, that one of them will yield more than six hundred weight of good eatable flesh; that his grease is as sweet as butter; that they delight to be near the mouth of rivers, where they browze upon the sea weeds, which grow on the banks ”

“ In the common course of nature, it is not the males but the females which constitute the unity of species. We know from the example of the sheep, which propagate alike with the ram, or the goat, that the female has much more influence than the male, on the specific qualities of the production, since the only issue from these two different males are lambs, that is, individuals which have a specific resemblance to the mother. Thus the mule resembles the mare more than she does the ass, [346] and the bardeau more the she-ass than the horse ”

“ Their coarse hair is changed into fine wool; their tail, loaded with a lump of fat, has become so large and inconvenient a bulk, that the animal drags it along with pain and difficulty; and while thus charged with superfluous matter, and adorned with a beautiful fleece, their strength, agility, and weapons are diminished; for these broad and long-tailed sheep are scarcely half the size of the muflon; they cannot fly from danger, nor make resistance against an enemy; and are in continual need of the care and assistance of man to preserve and multiply their species. ”

“ Of all animals whose skins are spotted, the robe of the male ocelot (fig. 180.) is certainly the most beautiful, and most elegantly varied. Even the skin of the leopard does not come near it for the liveliness of its colours, and the regularity of its marks; and far less those of the jaguar, panther, and ounce. The colours of the female ocelot are much weaker, and the design less regular; and this apparent difference it was that deceived Recchi, Fabri, and others, and was the occasion of their considering them as different species. ”

“ AS the wolf is a native of cold climates, he must have passed northerly into America, since he is met with in both continents. We have spoken of the black and grey wolf of North America. It appears that this species is dispersed as far as New Spain and Mexico; and that in this warm climate it has undergone many varieties, without having changed either its disposition or nature, for the Mexican wolf has the same figure, appetites, and habitudes, as the European or North American wolf, and they all seem to be of the same species. ”

“ If the principle of imitation, by which he seems so closely to copy the actions of man, were a result of thought or reason, this ape would be at a still greater distance from the brute species, and nearer the human; but, as we have observed, the interval which separates them is not trifling, and the resemblance in form, conformity of organization, and motions of imitation, which seem to result from those similitudes, neither bring it nearer the nature of man, nor raise it above that of the brutes. ”

“ Of all domestic animals, although they are the most carefully attended to, they are the least in number. In the ox, the sheep, the goat, and particularly the hog, dog, and cat, the individuals are ten, and, probably, a hundred times more numerous than those of the horse and ass. Thus their want of fecundity is proved by facts, and we must attribute the sterility of the mules to all the above causes, as they proceed from a mixture of these naturally unprolific species. ”

“ This fact is alone sufficient to demonstrate that there is more strength, extent, and flexibility, in man than in any other being; for vegetables, and almost every animal, are confined to particular soils and climates. This extension of our nature depends less on the properties of our bodies than those of our minds. By the last, man has been enabled to seek those things which are necessary for the delicacy of the body ”