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Show 180 THE DESCENT OF MAN. PAnT r.. Obscure as is the prob1 e m of th e a d va nee of civdil ids ati.o n, we can at least see that a nati·o n w h" h produce urmg lC h" 11 . t 1 a lengthened period the greatest number of Ig 1 y m e - l~ ectual, energeti.c , brave, patrw· t "·I C, and be' nevo.l ent men,. would generally prevail over less favoured n~ti~ns. . t Nat ural se] ection follows from the str?gg e or e;ts. -. ence . and this fi·om a rapid rate of mcrease. . t IS I. mpos' si" bl e no t bi"ttei·ly to reob -ret ' but whether Wd isely is another question, the rate at which _man ten. s to m. crease ; 1r 0r thi·s. leads in barbarous. t.n .b es to . mfan-ticide and many other evils, and in ctvihsed na_twns to abject poverty, celibacy, and to the late marrJage~ of tl1 e prn d en t . But as m•a n suffers from the .s ame physical evils with the lower animals, he has no r1ght to expect an immunity from the evils consequent on the struggle~ for existence. Had J1e not been subjected to ~atural selection assuredly he would never have attamed to the rank of manh~od. When we see in rna~y part& of the world enormous areas of the most ferti~e land peopled by a few wandering savages, but w~ICh. are capable of supporting numerous happy homes, It m1ght be aro·ued that the struggle for existence bad not been sufficiently severe to force man upwards to his highest, standard. Judging from all that we lmow of man ~nil the lower animals, there has always been suffiCient variabilitv in the intellectual and moral faculties, for their ste~dy advancement through natural selection. No doubt such advancement demands many favourable concurrent circumstances; but it may well be doubted whether the most favourable would have sufficed, had· not the rate of increase been rapid, and the consequent struggle for existence severe to an extreme degree. On the evidence that all civilised nations were once barba? ·ous.-As we have had to consider the steps by which CHAP. v. CIVILISED NATIONS. 181 some semi-human creature has been gradually raised to the rank of man in his most perfect state, the present subject cannot be quite passed over. But it has been treated in so full and admirable a manner by Sir J. Lubbock/9 Mr. Tylor, Mr. M'Lennan, and others, that I need here give only the briefest summary of their results. The arguments recently advanced by the Duke of Argyll 30 and formerly by Archbishop Whately, in favour of the belief that man came into the world as a civilised being and that all savages have since undergone degradation, seem to me weak in comparison with those advanced on the other side. Many nations, no doubt, have fallen away in civilisation, and some may have lapsed into utter barbarism, though on this latter head I have not met with any evidence. The Fuegians were probably compelled by other conquering hordes to settle in their inhospitable country, and they may have become in consequence somewhat more degraded ; but it would be difficult to prO\·e that they have fallen much below the Botocndos who inhabit the finest parts of Brazil. The evidence that all civilised nations are the descendants of barbarians, consists, on the one side, of clear traces of their former low condition in still-existing customs, beliefs, language, &c.; and on the other side, of proofs that savages are independently able to raise themselves a few steps in the scale of civilisation, and have actually thus risen. The evidence on the first head is extremely cm·ious, but cannot be here given: I refer to such cases as that, for instance, of the art of enumeration, which, as Mr. Tylor clearly shews by the words still used in some places, originated in counting 20 'On the Origin of Civilisation,' 'Proc. Ethnological Soc.' Nov. 26, 1867. 30 'Primevall\Ian,' 1860. |