PDF - Wallace Online
PDF - Wallace Online PDF - Wallace Online
192 NATURAL SELECTION-*" ixand beautiful, which are so largely developed in civilisedman. Any considerable development of these would, in fact,be useless or even hurtful to him, since they would to someextent interfere with the supremacy of those perceptive andanimal faculties on which his very existence often depends, inthe severe struggle he has to carry on against nature and hisfellow-man. Yet the rudiments of all these powers and feelingsundoubtedly exist in him, since one or other of themfrequently manifest themselves in exceptional cases, or whensome special circumstances call them forth. Some tribes,such as the Santals, are remarkable for as pure a love oftruth as the most moral among civilised men. The Hindooand the Polynesian have a high artistic feeling, the first tracesof which are clearly visible in the rude drawings of thepalseolithic men who were the contemporaries in France ofthe reindeer and the mammoth. Instances of unselfish love,of true gratitude, and of deep religious feeling, sometimesoccur among most savage races.On the whole, then, we may conclude that the general,moral, and intellectual development of the is savage not lessremoved from that of civilised man than has been shown tobe the case in the one department of mathematics ;and fromthe fact that all the moral and intellectual faculties do occasionallymanifest themselves, we may fairly conclude that theyare always latent, and that the large brain of the savage manis much beyond his actual requirements in the savage state.Intellect of Savages and of Animals compared. Let usnow compare the intellectual wants of the savage, and theactual amount of intellect he exhibits, with those of thehigher animals. Such races as the Andaman Islanders,the Australians, and the Tasmanians, the Digger Indians ofNorth America, or the natives of Fuegia, pass their lives soas to require the exercise of few faculties not possessed in anequal degree by many animals. In the mode of capture ofgame or fish they by no means surpass the ingenuity or forethoughtof the jaguar, who drops saliva into the water, andseizes the fish as they come to eat it; or of wolves andjackals, who hunt in packs ;or of the fox, who buries hissurplus food till he requires it. The sentinels placed byantelopes and by monkeys, and the various modes of building
ix LIMITS OF NATURAL SELECTION IN MAN 193adopted by field mice and beavers, as well as the sleepingplaceof the orang-utan, and the tree-shelter of some of theAfrican anthropoid apes, may well be compared with theamount of care and forethought bestowed by many savagesin similar circumstances. His possession of free and perfecthands, not required for locomotion, enables man to form anduse weapons and implements which are beyond the physicalpowers of brutes but; having done this, he certainly does notexhibit more mind in using them than do many lower animals.What is there in the life of the savage but the satisfying ofthe cravings of appetite in the simplest and easiest way?What thoughts, ideas, or actions are there that raise himmany grades above the elephant or the ape 1 Yet he possesses,as we have seen, a brain vastly superior to theirs insize and complexity ;and this brain gives him, in an undevelopedstate, faculties which he never requires to use. Andif this is true of existing savages, how much more true mustit have been of the men whose sole weapons were rudelychipped flints, and some of whom, we may fairly conclude,were lower than any existing race ;while the only evidenceyet in our possession shows them to have had brains fullyas capacious as those of the average of the lower savageraces.We see, then, that whether we compare the savage withthe higher developments of man, or with the brutes aroundhim, we are alike driven to the conclusion that in his large andwell -developed brain he possesses an organ quite disproportionateto his actual requirements an organ that seems preparedin advance, only to be fully utilised as he progresses incivilisation. A brain one-half larger than that of the gorillawould, according to the evidence before us, fully have sufficedfor the limited mental development of the savage ;and wemust therefore admit that the large brain he actually possessescould never have been solely developed by any of thoselaws of evolution, whose essence that is, they lead to a degreeof organisation exactly proportionate to the wants of eachspecies, never beyond those wants that no preparation canbe made for the future development of the race that onepart of the body can never increase in size or complexity, exceptin strict co-ordination to the pressing wants of the whole.
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192 NATURAL SELECTION-*" ixand beautiful, which are so largely developed in civilisedman. Any considerable development of these would, in fact,be useless or even hurtful to him, since they would to someextent interfere with the supremacy of those perceptive andanimal faculties on which his very existence often depends, inthe severe struggle he has to carry on against nature and hisfellow-man. Yet the rudiments of all these powers and feelingsundoubtedly exist in him, since one or other of themfrequently manifest themselves in exceptional cases, or whensome special circumstances call them forth. Some tribes,such as the Santals, are remarkable for as pure a love oftruth as the most moral among civilised men. The Hindooand the Polynesian have a high artistic feeling, the first tracesof which are clearly visible in the rude drawings of thepalseolithic men who were the contemporaries in France ofthe reindeer and the mammoth. Instances of unselfish love,of true gratitude, and of deep religious feeling, sometimesoccur among most savage races.On the whole, then, we may conclude that the general,moral, and intellectual development of the is savage not lessremoved from that of civilised man than has been shown tobe the case in the one department of mathematics ;and fromthe fact that all the moral and intellectual faculties do occasionallymanifest themselves, we may fairly conclude that theyare always latent, and that the large brain of the savage manis much beyond his actual requirements in the savage state.Intellect of Savages and of Animals compared. Let usnow compare the intellectual wants of the savage, and theactual amount of intellect he exhibits, with those of thehigher animals. Such races as the Andaman Islanders,the Australians, and the Tasmanians, the Digger Indians ofNorth America, or the natives of Fuegia, pass their lives soas to require the exercise of few faculties not possessed in anequal degree by many animals. In the mode of capture ofgame or fish they by no means surpass the ingenuity or forethoughtof the jaguar, who drops saliva into the water, andseizes the fish as they come to eat it; or of wolves andjackals, who hunt in packs ;or of the fox, who buries hissurplus food till he requires it. The sentinels placed byantelopes and by monkeys, and the various modes of building