160 THE DESCENT OF MAN. Part I. 



are likewise of some importance for its success, and 

 these depend in part on the nature and amount of the 

 food which can be obtained. In Europe the men of the 

 Bronze period were supplanted by a more powerful and, 

 judging from their sword- handles, larger-handed race ; 3 

 but their success was probably due in a much higher 

 degree to their superiority in the arts. 



All that we know about savages, or may infer from 

 their traditions and from old monuments, the history 

 of which is quite forgotten by the present inhabitants, 

 shew that from the remotest times successful tribes have 

 supplanted other tribes. Kelics of extinct or forgotten 

 tribes have been discovered throughout the civilised 

 regions of the earth, on the wild plains of America, and 

 on the isolated islands in the Pacific Ocean. At the 

 present day civilised nations are everywhere supplanting 

 barbarous nations, excepting where the climate opposes 

 a deadly barrier ; and they succeed mainly, though not 

 exclusively, through their arts, which are the products 

 of the intellect. It is, therefore, highly probable that 

 with mankind the intellectual faculties have been 

 gradually perfected through natural selection ; and this 

 conclusion is sufficient for our purpose. Undoubtedly 

 it would have been very interesting to have traced the 

 development of each separate faculty from the state in 

 which it exists in the lower animals to that in which it 

 exists in man ; but neither my ability nor knowledge 

 permit the attempt. 



It deserves notice that as soon as the progenitors of 

 man became social (and this probably occurred at a 

 very early period), the advancement of the intellectual 

 faculties will have been aided and modified in an 

 important manner, of which we see only traces in 



3 Morlot, ' Soc. Vaud. Sc Nat. 1 i860, p. 294. 



