SELECTION ON MAN. 315 



and finally become extinct. But man guards himself 

 from such accidents by superintending and guiding 

 the operations of nature. He plants the seed of his 

 most agreeable food, and thus procures a supply, in- 

 dependent of the accidents of varying seasons or na- 

 tural extinction. He domesticates animals, which serve 

 him either to capture food or for food itself, and thus, 

 changes of any great extent in his teeth or digestive 

 organs are rendered unnecessary. Man, too, has every- 

 where the use of fire, and by its means can render 

 palatable a variety of animal and vegetable substances, 

 which he could hardly otherwise make use of; and thus 

 obtains for himself a supply of food far more varied and 

 abundant than that which any animal can command. 



Thus man, by the mere capacity of clothing him- 

 self, and making weapons and tools, has taken away 

 from nature that power of slowly but permanently 

 changing the external form and structure, in accord- 

 ance with changes in the external world, which she 

 exercises over all other animals. As the competing 

 races by which they are surrounded, the climate, the 

 vegetation, or the animals which serve them for food, 

 are slowly changing, they must undergo a corre- 

 sponding change in their structure, habits, and con- 

 stitution, to keep them in harmony with the new 

 conditions to enable them to live and maintain their 

 numbers. But man does this by means of his intellect 

 alone, the variations of which enable him, with an 

 unchanged body, still to keep in harmony with the 

 changing universe. 



