CONFORMITY TO ENVIRONMENT 1T9 



fact that each mammalian egg represented a large 

 amount of nutriment, and that the mammal had very 

 little material to spare for reproduction. Very possibly, 

 too, the newly hatched mammals were exposed to even 

 more numerous and greater dangers than the young of 

 birds. Even among lower mammals the young is 

 feeble at birth. But the human infant is absolutely 

 helpless. And the centre of its helplessness is its 

 brain. Its eyes and ears are comparatively perfect, 

 but its perceptions are very dim. Its muscles are all 

 present, but it must very slowly and gradually learn 

 to use them. Its language is but a cry, its few actions 

 reflex. The new-born kitten may be just as helpless, 

 but in a few weeks it will run and play and hunt, and 

 after a few months can care for itself. Not so the 

 child. It must be cared for during months and years 

 before it can be given independence. Its brain is so 

 marvellously complex that it is finished as a thinking 

 and willing and muscle-controlling mechanism only 

 long after birth. This means a period of infancy dur- 

 ing which the young clings helplessly to the mother, 

 who is its natural protector. And during this period 

 the mother and young have to be cared for and pro- 

 tected by the male. And the period of infancy and 

 the protection of the female and young are just as 

 truly, though in far less degree, characteristic of the 

 highest apes as of man. 



I can give you only this very condensed and incom- 

 plete abstract of Mr. John Fiske's argument ; you must 

 read it for yourself in his " Destiny of Man." And as 

 he has there shown, this can have but one result, and 

 that is the family life of man. And we may yet very pos- 

 sibly have to acknowledge that family life of a very low 



