332 



X. 



THE LIMITS OF NATURAL SELECTION AS 

 APPLIED TO MAN. 



THROUGHOUT this volume I have endeavoured to show, 

 that the known laws of variation, multiplication, and 

 heredity, resulting in a "struggle for existence" and 

 the " survival of the fittest," have probably sufficed to 

 produce all the varieties of structure, all the wonderful 

 adaptations, all the beauty of form and of colour, that 

 we see in the animal and vegetable kingdoms. To the 

 best of my ability I have answered the most obvious 

 and the most often repeated objections to this theory, 

 and have, I hope, added to its general strength, by 

 showing how colour one of the strongholds of the 

 advocates of special creation may be, in almost all its 

 modifications, accounted for by the combined influence 

 of sexual selection and the need of protection. I have 

 also endeavoured to show, how the same power which 

 has modified animals has acted on man; and have, I 

 believe, proved that, as soon as the human intellect 

 became developed above a certain low stage, man's 

 body would cease to be materially affected by natural 

 selection, because the development of his mental facul- 

 ties would render important modifications of its form 

 and structure unnecessary. It will, therefore, probably 



