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Show 404 GENERAL SUMMARY PART IT. portant as the struggle for existence has been and even still is, yet as far as the highest part of man's nature is concerned there are other agencies more important. For the moral qualities are advanced, either directly or indirectly, much more through the effects of habit, tho reasoning powers, instruction, religion, &c., than through natural selection; though to this latter agency the social instincts, which afforded the basis for the development of the moral sense, may be safely attributed. The main conclusion arrived at in this wodt, nnmely that man is descenden from some lowly-organised form, will, I regret to think, be highly distasteful to many persons. But there can hardly be a doubt that we are descended from barbArians. 'fhe astonishment which I felt on :first seeing a party of Fuegians on a wild and broken shore will never be forgotten by me, for the reflection at once rushed into my mindsuch were our ancestors. These men were absolutely llaked and bedanbed with paint, their long hair wa~ tangled, their months frothed with excitement, and their expression was wild, startled, and distrustful. They possessed hardly nny m·ts, and like wild animals livecl on what they could catch; they had no government, anrl were merciless to every one not of their own Rmall tribe. He who has seen a savage in his native land will not feel much shame, if forced to acknowledge that the blood of some more humble creature flows in his veins. For my own part I would as soon l:e descendcJ from that heroic little monkey, who braYed his dreaded enemy in order to save the life of his keeper; or from that old baboon, who, descending from the mountains, carried away in triumph his young comrade from a crowd of astonished dogs-as from a savage who delights to torture his enemies, offers up ('IIAP. XXI. AND CO~CLUDING REMARKS. 4.05 bloody sacrifices, practises infanticide without remorse treats his wives like sla~es, knows no decency, and j~ haunted by the grossest superstitions. . Man may be excused for feeling some pride at havinrr nsen, though not through his own exertions, to th~ ver~ summit of the organic scale ; and the fact of his haviDg thus risen, in~tead .of having been aboriginally })lac:d t~ere, ma! give him hopes for a still higher .d.estmy m the d1stant future. But we are not here -concerned with hopes or fears, only with the truth as far as ~ur reason allows us to discover it. I have given the evidence to ~he best of my ability; and we must .acknowledge, as It sef'ms to me, that man with all his uoble qualities, with sympathy which feels for the most .debased, with benevolence which extends not only to other men but to the humblest living creature with his ·god-like intellect which has penetrated into the movements and constitution of the solar system-with all these exalted powers-Man still bears in his bod"l _{}_·arne the indelible stamp of his lowly origin. 1 y |