s in Euterpe_ seu lib. 2. p.m. 102.]

I do not find therefore any good Authority, unless you will reckon
_Ctesias_ as such, that the _Pygmies_ ever used a Language or Speech, any
more than other _Brutes_ of the same _Species_ do among themselves, and
that we know nothing of, whatever _Democritus_ and _Melampodes_ in
_Pliny_,[A] or _Apollonius Tyanaeus_ in _Porphyry_[B] might formerly have
done. Had the _Pygmies_ ever spoke any _Language_ intelligible by Mankind,
this might have furnished our _Historians_ with notable Subjects for their
_Novels_; and no doubt but we should have had plenty of them.

[Footnote A: _Plinij Nat. Hist._ lib. 10. cap. 49.]

[Footnote B: _Porphyrius de Abstinentia_, lib. 3. pag. m. 103.]

But _Albertus Magnus_, who was so lucky as to guess that the _Pygmies_
were a sort of _Apes_; that he should afterwards make these _Apes_ to
_speak_, was very unfortunate, and spoiled all; and he do's it, methinks,
so very awkwardly, that it is as difficult almost to understand his
Language as his _Apes_; if the Reader has a mind to attempt it, he will
find it in the Margin.[A]

[Footnote A: _Si qui Homines sunt Silvestres, sicut Pygmeus, non secundum
unam rationem nobiscum dicti sunt Homines, sed aliquod habent Hominis in
quadam deliberatione & Loquela, &c._ A little after adds, _Voces quaedam
(sc. Animalia) formant ad diversos conceptus quos habent, sicut Homo &
Pygmaeus; & quaedam non faciunt hoc, sicut multitudo fere tota aliorum
Animalium. Adhuc autem eorum quae ex ratione cogitativa formant voces,
quaedam sunt succumbentia, quaedam autem non succumbentia. Dico autem
succumbentia, a conceptu Animae cadentia & mota ad Naturae Instinctum, sicut
Pygmeus, qui non, sequitur rationem Loquelae sed Naturae Instinctum; Homo
autem non succumbit sed sequitur rationem._ Albert. Magn. de Animal. lib.
1. cap. 3. p.m. 3.]

Had _Albertus_ only asserted, that the _Pygmies_ were a sort of _Apes_,
his Opinion possibly might have obtained with less difficulty, unless he
could have produced some Body that had heard them talk. But _Ulysses
Aldrovandus_[A] is so far from believing his _Ape Pygmies_ ever spoke,
that he utterly denies, that there were ever any such Creatures in being,
as the _Pygmies_, at all; or that they ever fought the _Cranes_. _Cum
itaque Pygmaeos_ (saith he) _dari negemus, Grues etiam cum iis Bellum
gerere, ut fabulantur, negabimus, & tam pertinaciter id negabimus, ut ne
jurantibus credemus._

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