seem all to blend with
neighbouring forms, and to fall into groups of likenesses, greater or
lesser, and of genera which our nomenclators represent to us by a
network of shapes, of which some are held together by the feet, others
by the teeth, horns, and skin, and others by points of still minor
importance. And even those whose form strikes us as most perfect, as
approaching most nearly to our own--even the apes--require some
attention before they can be distinguished from one another, for the
privilege of being an isolated species has been assigned less to form
than to size; and man himself, though of a separate species and
differing infinitely from all or any others, has but a medium size, and
is less isolated and has nearer neighbours than have the greater
animals. If we study the Orang-outang with regard only to his
configuration, we might regard him, with equal justice, as either the
highest of the apes or as the lowest of mankind, because, with the
exception of the soul, he wants nothing of what we have ourselves, and
because, as regards his body, he differs less from man than he does from
other animals which are still called apes."[115]

The want of a soul Buffon maintains to be the only essential difference
between the Orang-outang and man--"his body, limbs, senses, brain and
tongue are the same as ours. He can execute whatever movements man can
execute; yet he can neither think nor speak, nor do any action of a
distinctly human character. Is this merely through want of training? or
may it not be through wrong comparison on our own parts? We compare the
wild ape in the woods to the civilized citizen of our great towns. No
wonder the ape shows to disadvantage. He should be compared with the
hideous Hottentot rather, who is himself almost as much above the lowest
man, as the lowest man is above the Orang-outang."[116]

The passage is a much stronger one than I have thought it fit to quote.
The reader can refer to it for himself. After reading it I entertain no
further doubt that Buffon intended to convey the impression that men and
apes are descended from common ancestors. He was not, however, going to
avow this conclusion openly.

"I admit," he continues, "that if we go by mere structure the ape might
be taken for a variety of the human race; the Creator did not choose to
model mankind upon an entirely distinct system from the other animals:
He comprised their form and man's under a plan which is in the main
u