232 THE DESCENT OF MAN. Part I. 



into consideration they are found to resemble each 

 other closely in a multitude of points. Many of these 

 points are of so unimportant or of so singular a nature, 

 that it is extremely improbable that they should have 

 been independently acquired by aboriginally distinct 

 species or races. The same remark holds good with 

 equal or greater force with respect to the numerous 

 points of mental similarity between the most distinct 

 races of man. The American aborigines, Negroes and 

 Europeans differ as much from each other in mind as any 

 three races that can be named ; yet I was incessantly 

 struck, whilst living with the Fuegians on board the 

 " Beagle," with the many little traits of character, 

 shewing how similar their minds were to ours ; and so 

 it was with a full-blooded negro with whom I happened 

 once to be intimate. 



He who will carefully read Mr. Tylor's and Sir 

 J. Lubbock's interesting works 23 can hardly fail to be 

 deeply impressed with the close similarity between 

 the men of all races in tastes, dispositions and habits. 

 This is shewn by the pleasure which they all take in 

 dancing, rude music, acting, painting, tattooing, and 

 otherwise decorating themselves, — in their mutual 

 comprehension of gesture-language — and, as I shall be 

 able to shew in a future essay, by the same expression 

 in their features, and by the same inarticulate cries, 

 when they are excited by various emotions. This 

 similarity, or rather identity, is striking, when contrasted 

 with the different expressions which may be observed 

 in distinct species of monkeys. There is good evi- 

 dence that the art of shooting with bows and arrows has 

 not been handed down from any common progenitor of 



23 Tylor's « Early History of Mankind,' 1865 ; for the evidence with 

 respect to gesture-language, see p. 54. Lubbock's • Prehistoric Times,' 

 2nd edit. 1869. 



