New-York tribune., 1869-01-05
STPERIOR R1CES.

II il ten thousand pties thai Lord Monboddo
is not still in the ilcsh. if il we're only that lac
n,issl,t read the " Democratic newspapers, He
believed, and amidst the ndicule OF all EnrOpC
proclaimed lis belief, that men were origi-
nally monkeys; he declared that ounng-
outangs are still of the human species;
he g1avely ayerrcd that in the vicinity
Of Bengal there still existed tribe of
men with tails and lac stouily maintained that
we should all have tails if our ancestors had
not worl off their own by constant sitting. IL
his Lortlship were now alive it Is necd'' - 70
point out what a godsend Mr.. Du Chaillu's
gorilla would be to him. This, however, would
net be his only satisfaction lie would have
to-day what III his own he sadly lacked-he
would have something like q following. With
his theory of tails he would have been
in some sort at the head Of school, and of a
school the yotaries of which, while differing
ferociously in details, agree in assigning to
man a bcstial beginning. We are not sure that
the gentlemen who are so busily engaged in
writing down our progenitors to brute level,
and who are so anxious to have us believe that
millions OF so-called men have advanced hard
ly at all from the standard of creatures want
ing " discourse of reason"-wc arc not sure that
these preachers of an eyangel OF human deg.
radiation which can only debase the lowest of
oil having the likeness of man by dctraciing
something from the dignity OF the highest,
might not find excellent hints, and more
than one lucky suggestion, in Lord
MODboddos forgotten essay. The book,
which aroused the wrath of DR.. Johnson, is so
utterly unremembered that We suspect that
very few of our readers have ever seen it, and
proof of the oblivion into which it has fallen
may he found in the fact that we have never
observed its authority to be adduced by any of
the writer's of the Caudal School. Perhaps,
after all, the Monboddo theory might prove
move troublesome than useful because, in the
first place, We might think less nobly of the
soul should we adopt something like the opin-
zion Of Pythagoras concerning wild fowl"
and because, in the second place, even the
Scotch judges notion is 20 far from being in
consistent with progressive development that
il is, III fact, bOttOmed upon the idea of steady
and predestinate advancement. The most
thoroughly animalized of creatures may be-
come, according to the Burnct theory at least,
" the paragon Uf animals" We should still
have this consolation, even il we weIe forced
no longer to regard these speculations as dis
ordered Dreams But the doctrine of modern
times which classiies certain creatures as beasis
in spite of their human form, and their faculties
at least appToXimating to the human, leaves
these unfortunate monsters precisely where it
| it finds them. If they have tails now, tails
they must continue TO wear until the crach Of
doom, when they will sink into the dust. from
which they spiupg and utterly perish Giveu
| creature "woely headed, with a low FORE
head. fat nose, thick lips, and black
skin" aud the deduction i that not only is
he not man, but that by no possibility can
! his progeny become men. The doom Of his
| degradation Is renoiselcss and oternal ihf ol
II is sometimes easiest, rs everybody knows
to c0ntroycrt the soundness Of q theory by
pointing ont tie inevitable results of It's estab
lishment. The moment we begin 10y physical
speculation to isolate from humanity large classes
OF beings who have pTimd fdcie the right to be
considered as human, we remove the last check
from that ridiculous pride which both meta
physically and morally is the opprobrium of our
nature Primarily and most generally, we not
only furnish that national arrogance which has