Volume 1
A history of the earth, and animated nature / By Oliver Goldsmith. With an introductory view of the animal kingdom, tr. from the French by Baron Cuvier. And copious notes embracing accounts of new discoveries in natural history: And a life of the author by Washington Irving. And a carefully prepared index to the whole work.
- Oliver Goldsmith
- Date:
- 1847
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A history of the earth, and animated nature / By Oliver Goldsmith. With an introductory view of the animal kingdom, tr. from the French by Baron Cuvier. And copious notes embracing accounts of new discoveries in natural history: And a life of the author by Washington Irving. And a carefully prepared index to the whole work. Source: Wellcome Collection.
546/660 page 474
![not employed in feeding-, they sleep in herds in the most miry places they can find. Each herd seems to be under the direction of a large male, which mar- iners ludicrously style the bashaw, from his driving off the other males from a number of females which he appropriates to himself.—These bashaws, how- ever, do not arrive at this envied superiority without many fierce and sanguinary conflicts, of which their numerous scars generally bear evidence. Some of Lord Anson’s people observed one day on the island of Juan Fernandez, what they at first supposed to be animals of a kind different fi om any they had previ- ously seen; but, on a nearer approach, they proved to be two of these seals, which had been goring each other with their teeth, till both were completely covered with blood. It is not difficult to kill them; for their propensity to sleep, and their sluggish and unwieldy motions, generally render them an easy prey to their enemies. Sometimes, however, they make a vigorous resistance; and, it is said, that as a sailor was one day employed in skinning one of the young, the female from whom he had taken it, came upon him unperceived, and getting his head into her inouth, lacerated his skull so dreadfully, that he died in a few days afterwards. According to Lord Anson’s account, the flesh of these quadrupeds is somewhat like beef, and the hearts and tongues are excellent eating. These animals are principally found on the coast of Zealand, on the island of Juan Fernandez, and the Falkland Islands. The females produce two young ones in the winter, which they suckle for some time. These, when first brought forth, are about the size of a full-grown common seal. BOOK VIII.* OF THE MONKEY KIND. Quadrupeds may be considered as a numerous group, terminated on every side by some that but in part deserve the name. On one quarter we see a tribe covered with quills, or furnished with wings, that lift them among the inhabit- ants of the air; on another, we behold a diver- sity clothed with scales and shells, to rank with insects; and still on a third, we see them de- scending into the waters, to live among the mute tenants of that element. We now come to a nu- merous tribe, that leaving the brute creation, seem to make approaches even to humanity; that bear an awkward resemblance of the human form, and discover some faint efforts at intellec- tual sagacity. Animals of the Monkey class are furnished with hands instead of paws; their ears, eyes, eyelids, lips, and breasts, are like those of mankind; their internal conformation also bears some distant likeness; and the whole offers a picture that may well mortify the pride of such as make their per- sons alone the principal object of their admira- tion. These approaches, however, are gradual; and some bear the marks of this our boasted form more strongly than others. In the Ape kind we see the whole external * In arranging the present edition of Goldsmith’s ‘Natural History,’ we have made a distinct book under this head, without throwing into this book—i as has been done in all other editions of the work— descriptions of all the other quadrupeds not specially belonging to the preceding sections in Goldsmith’s inartificial but pleasing arrangement. After describ- ing the animals “of the Monkey kind,” our author passes, at one bound, to the description of the ele- phant. The description of these unclassified ani- mals, completing that of quadrupeds in general, seems obviously to form a natural and leading division in the arrangement of the work; and has accordingly been given in a distinct book [IX], at p. 497.—Ed. machine strongly impressed with the human like- ness, and capable of the same exertions: these walk upright, want a tail, have fleshy posteriors, have calves to their legs, and feet nearly like ours. In the Baboon kind we perceive a more dis- tant approach to the human form; the quadi-u- ped mixing in every part of the animal’s flgure: these generally go upon all fours; but some, when upright, are as taU as a man; they have short tails, long snouts, and are possessed of brutal fierceness. The Monkey kind are removed a step further; these are much less than the former, with tails as long, or longer, than their bodies, and flattish faces. Lastly, the Maki and Opossum kind, seem to lose all resemblance of the human figure, except in having hands; their noses are lengthened out like those of quadrupeds, and every part of their bodies totally different from the human; how- ever, as they grasp their food, or other objects, with one hand, which quadrupeds cannot do, this single similitude gives them an air of sagacity, to which they have scarcely any other pretensions. From this slight survey it may be easily seen that one general description wiU not serve for animals so very different from each other: nev- ertheless, it will be fatiguing to the last degree, as their varieties are so numerous, and their dif- ferences so small, to go through a particular de- scription of each. In this case it will be best to give a history of the foremost in each class; at the same time marking the distinctions in every species. By this we shall avoid a tedious repeti- tion of similar characters, and consider the man- ners and the oddities of this fantastic tribe in general points of view; where we shall perceive how nearly they approach to the human figure.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22014457_0001_0546.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
