There is a story current of a certain very eminent French naturalist,
who is so profoundly impressed by the truth of the Darwinian theory,
that he never passes the cage where the larger apes are confined in
the Jardin des Plantes without taking off his hat, making a profound
obeisance, and wishing them a _bon jour_.
This recognition is touching and graceful. The homage of the witches to
him who should be king hereafter, had in it a sort of mockery that made
it horrible; but here we have an act of generous courtesy, based alike
on the highest discoveries of science and the rules of the truest
good-breeding.
The learned professor, with all the instincts of great acquirements
and much self-knowledge united, admits them at once to equality and
fraternity--the liberty, perhaps, they will have to wait some time
for; but in that they are no worse off than some millions of their
fellow-countrymen.
One might speculate long--I don’t know exactly how profitably--on the
sense of gratitude these creatures must feel for this touching kindness,
how they must long for the good man’s visit, how they must wonder by
what steps he arrived at this astonishing knowledge, how surprised they
must feel that he does not make more converts; and, last of all, what
pains they must take to exhibit in their outward bearing and behaviour
that they are not unworthy of the high consideration he bestows on them!
Before him no monkey-tricks, no apish indecorums--none even of those
passing levities which young gorillas will indulge in just like other
youths. No; all must be staid, orderly, and respectful--heads held well
up--hands at rest--tails nowhere; in fact, a port and bearing that would
defy the most scrutinising observer to say that they were less eligible
company than that he had just quitted at the café.
I own I have not seen them during the moment of the Professor’s passage.
I am unable to state authentically whether all this be as I surmise, but
I have a strong impression it must be. Indeed, reflecting on the habits
and modes of the species, I should be rather disposed to believe
them given to an exuberant show of gratitude than to anything like
indifference, and expect to witness demonstrations of delight more
natural possibly than graceful.
Now, I have not the most remote intention of impugning the Professor’s
honesty. I give him credit--full credit--for high purpose, and for high
courage. “These poor brothers of ours,” says he, “have tails, it is
true, and they have not the hypocampus major; but let me ask you,
Monsieur le Duc, or you, Monseigneur the Archbishop, will you dare to
affirm on oath that you yourself are endowed with a hypocampus major
or minor? Are you prepared to stand forward and declare that the
convolutions of your brain are of the regulation standard--that the
medullary part is not disproportioned to the cineritious--that your falx
is not thicker or thinner than it ought--and that your optic thalami are
not too prominent? And if you are not ready to do this, what avails all
your assumption of superiority? In these--they are not many--lie the
alleged differences between you and your caged cousins yonder.” Thus
speaks, or might speak, the Professor; and, I repeat, I respect
his candour; but still I would venture to submit one small, perhaps
ungenerous doubt, and ask, Would he, acting on the noble instincts that
move him, vote these creatures an immediate and entire emancipation, or
would he not rather wait a while--a few years, say--till the habit
of sitting on chairs had worn off some of the tail, and a greater
familiarity with society suggested not to store up their dinner in their
jaws? Would he like to see them at once take their places in public
life, become public functionaries, and ministers, and grand cordons?
Would he not rather, with that philosophy his country eminently teaches,
say, “I will do the pity and the compassion. To me be the sympathetic
part of a graceful sorrow. To posterity I bequeath the recognition of
these poor captives. Let them be liberated, by all means; but let it
be when I shall be no longer here to witness it. Let others face that
glorious millennium of gorilla greatness.”
I am afraid he would reason in this fashion; it is one thing to have an
opinion, and to have what Frenchmen call the “courage of your opinion.”
He would say, “If Nature work surely, she works slowly; her changes are
measured, regular, and progressive. With her there are no paroxysms;
all is orderly--all is gradual It took centuries of centuries to advance
these poor creatures to the point they occupy; their next stage on the
journey is perhaps countless years away. I will not attempt to forestall
what I cannot assist. I will let Time do its work. They are not
ill-treated, besides; that large creature with the yellow eyebrows
grinned at me very pleasantly this morning, and the she-ourang-outang
was whipping her infant most naturally as I came by.”
“What a cold-blooded philanthropy is this!” cries another. “You say
these are our brothers and our kinsmen; you declare that anatomy only
can detect some small and insignificant discrepancies between us, and
that even in these there are some of whose functions we know nothing,
and others, such as the prehensile power, where the ape has the best
of it. What do you mean by keeping them there ‘cribbed, cabined, and
confined’? Is a slight frontal inclination to disqualify a person from
being a prefect? Is an additional joint in the coccyx to prevent a man
sitting on the woolsack, or an extra inch in the astragalus to interfere
with his wearing spurs? If there be minute differences between us,
intercourse will abolish them. It will be of inestimable service
to yourselves to come into contact with these fresh, fine, generous
natures, uncontaminated by the vices of an effete and worn-out
civilisation. Great as are the benefits you extend to them, they will
repay you tenfold in the advantages to yourselves. Away with your
unworthy prejudices about a ‘black pigment’ and long heels! Take them to
your hearts and your hearths. You will find them brave--ay, braver than
your own race. Their teeth are whiter and their nails longer; there is
not a relation in life in which you will dare to call yourself their
better.”
I will go no farther, not merely because I have no liking for my
theme, but because I am pilfering. All these arguments--the very words
themselves--I have stolen from an American writer, who, in Horace
Greeley fashion, is addressing his countrymen on the subject of negro
equality. He not alone professes to show the humanity of the project,
but its policy--its even necessity. He declares to the whites, “You
want these people; without them you will sink lower and lower into that
effete degeneracy into which years of licentiousness have sunk you.
These gorillas--black men, I mean--are virtuous; they are abstemious;
they have a little smell, but no sensuality; they will make admirable
wives for your warriors; and who knows but one may be the mother of a
President as strikingly handsome as Ape Lincoln himself!” There is
no doubt much to be said for our long-heeled friends, whether with or
without a hypocampus major. I am not very certain that we compliment
them in the best taste when the handsomest thing we can say of them is,
that they are very like ourselves! It is our human mode, however, of
expressing admiration, and resembles the exclamation of the Oberland
peasant on seeing a pretty girl, “How handsome she’d be if she only had
a _goître!_”