54 The Descent of Man. Tart I 



and weaker, than his ancestors. We should, however, bear in 

 mind that an animal possessing great size, strength, and ferocity, 

 and which, like the gorilla, could defend itself from all enemies, 

 would not perhaps have become social; and this would most 

 effectually have checked the acquirement of the higher mental 

 qualities, such as sympathy and the love of his fellows. Hence it 

 might have been an immense advantage to man to have sprung 

 from some comparatively weak creature. 



The small strength and speed of man, his want of natural 

 weapons, &c, are more than counterbalanced, firstly, by his 

 intellectual powers, through w T hich he has formed for himself 

 weapons, tools, &c, though still remaining in a barbarous state, 

 and, secondly, by his social qualities which lead him to give and 

 receive aid from his fellow-men. No country in the world abounds 

 in a greater degree with dangerous beasts than Southern Africa ; 

 no country presents more fearful physical hardships than the 

 Arctic regions; yet one of the puniest of races, that of the 

 Bushmen, maintains itself in Southern Africa, as do the dwarfed 

 Esquimaux in the Arctic regions. The ancestors of man were, no 

 doubt, inferior in intellect, and probably in social disposition, to 

 the lowest existing savages ; but it is quite conceivable that they 

 might have existed, or even flourished, if they had advanced in 

 intellect, whilst gradually losing their brute-like powers, such 

 as that of climbing trees, &c. But these ancestors would not 

 have been exposed to any special danger, even if far more 

 helpless and defenceless than any existing savages, had they 

 inhabited some warm continent or large island, such as 

 Australia, New Guinea, or Borneo, which is now the home of the 

 orang. And natural selection arising from the competition of 

 tribe with tribe, in some such large area as one of these, together 

 with the inherited effects of habit, would, under favourable 

 conditions, have sufficed to raise man to his present high position 

 in the organic scale. 



