Note 11 — Chapter VI · SIR ORAN HAUT-TON

‘But though I hold the oran outang to be of our species, it must not be supposed that I think the monkey or ape, with or without a tail, participates of our nature: on the contrary, I maintain that, however much his form may resemble man’s, yet he is, as Linnaeus says, of the Troglodyte, nec nostri generis nec sanguinis. For as the mind, or internal principle, is the chief part of every animal, it is by it principally that the ancients have distinguished the several species. Now it is laid down by Mr. Buffon, and I believe it to be a fact that cannot be contested, that neither monkey, ape, nor baboon, have anything mild or gentle, tractable or docile, benevolent or humane in their dispositions; but, on the contrary, are malicious and untractable, to be governed only by force and fear, and without any gravity or composure in their gait or behaviour, such as the oran outang has.’—Origin and Progress of Language, book ii. chap. 4.