Chapter 1620

[←1612]

This the way primitive man must have acted? We are not aware of men, not even of savages, in our age, who are known to have imitated the apes which lived side by side with them in the forests of America and the islands. But we do know of large apes who, tamed and living in houses, will mimic men to the length of donning hats and coats. The writer once had a chimpanzee who, without being taught, opened a newspaper and pretended to read it. It is the descending generations, the children, who mimic their parents—not the reverse.