90 WORK ON 'MAN.' [1864. 



our views on the modification of species than any separate 

 Treatises on the simple subject itself. It is really admirable ; 

 but you ought not in the Man paper to speak of the theory 

 as mine ; it is just as much yours as mine. One correspondent 

 has already noticed to me your " high-minded " conduct on 

 this head. But now for your Man paper, about which I 

 should like to write more than I can. The great leading 

 idea is quite new to me, viz. that during late ages, the mind 

 will have been modified more than the body ; yet I had got 

 as far as to see with you, that the struggle between the races 

 of man depended entirely on intellectual and moral qualities. 

 The latter part of the paper I can designate only as grand 

 and most eloquently done. I have shown your paper to two 

 or three persons who have been here, and they have been 

 equally struck with it. I am not sure that I go with you on 

 all minor points : when reading Sir G. Grey's account of the 

 constant battles of Australian savages, I remember thinking 

 that natural selection would come in, and likewise with the 

 Esquimaux, with whom the art of fishing and managing canoes 

 is said to be hereditary. I rather differ on the rank, under 

 a classificatory point of view, which you assign to man ; I do 

 not think any character simply in excess ought ever to be 

 used for the higher divisions. Ants would not be separated 

 from other hymenopterous insects, however high the instinct 

 of the one, and however low the instincts of the other. With 

 respect to the differences of race, a conjecture has occurred 

 to me that much may be due to the correlation of complexion 

 (and consequently hair) with constitution. Assume that a 

 dusky individual best escaped miasma, and you will readily 

 see what I mean. I persuaded the Director-General of the 

 Medical Department of the Army to send printed forms to 

 the surgeons of all regiments in tropical countries to ascertain 

 this point, but I dare say I shall never get any returns. 

 Secondly, I suspect that a sort of sexual selection has been 



