326 EVOLUTION [CHAP. V 



Letter 241 of the sense for the beautiful by man and the lower animals. 

 It would indeed be an immense advantage to an author if he 

 could read such criticisms as yours before publishing. At 

 p. ii of your review you accidentally misquote my words 

 placed by you within inverted commas, from my Vol. II., 

 p. 354: I say that "man cannot endure any great change," 

 and the omitted words "any great" l make all the difference 

 in the discussion. 



Permit me to add a few other remarks. I believe your 

 criticism is quite just about my deficient historic spirit, for 

 I am aware of my ignorance in this line. 2 On the other 

 hand, if you should ever be led to read again Chapter III., 

 and especially Chapter V., I think you will find that I am 

 not amenable to all your strictures ; though I felt that I was 

 walking on a path unknown to me and full of pitfalls ; but 

 I had the advantage of previous discussions by able men. I 

 tried to say most emphatically that a great philosopher, law- 

 giver, etc., did far more for the progress of mankind by his 

 writings or his example than by leaving a numerous offspring. 

 I have endeavoured to show how the struggle for existence 

 between tribe and tribe depends on an advance in the moral 

 and intellectual qualities of the members, and not merely on 

 their capacity of obtaining food. When I speak of the neces- 

 sity of a struggle for existence in order that mankind should 

 advance still higher in the scale, I do not refer to the most, 

 but " to the more highly gifted men " being successful in the 

 battle for life ; I referred to my supposition of the men in any 

 country being divided into two equal bodies viz., the more 

 and the less highly gifted, and to the former on an average 

 succeeding best. 



1 " Mr. Darwin tells us, and gives us excellent reasons for thinking, that 

 'the men of each race prefer what they are accustomed to behold ; they 

 cannot endure change.' Yet is there not an inconsistency between this 

 fact and the other that one race differs from another exactly because 

 novelties presented themselves, and were eagerly seized and propagated?" 



2 " In the historic spirit, however, Mr. Darwin must fairly be pro- 

 nounced deficient. When, for instance, he speaks of the 'great sin of 

 slavery' having been general among primitive nations, he forgets that, 

 though to hold a slave would be a sinful degradation to a European 

 to-day, the practice of turning prisoners of war into slaves, instead of 

 butchering them, was not a sin at all, but marked a decided improvement 

 in human manners." 



