Chap, ]I. 



Manner of Develop me] it. 



29 



completely subjugated by other men, as that certain individuals 

 should be preserved, and thus unconsciously selected, from some- 

 how excelling in utility to their masters. Nor have certain 

 male and female individuals been intentionally picked out and 

 matched, except in the well-known case of the Prussian grena- 

 diers ; and in this case man obeyed, as might have been ex- 

 pected, the law of methodical selection ; for it is asserted that 

 many tall men were reared in the villages inhabited by the 

 grenadiers and their tall wives. In Sparta, also, a form of selec- 

 tion was followed, for it was enacted that all children should be 

 examined shortly after birth ; the well-formed and vigorous 

 being preserved, the others left to perish. 13 



If we consider all the races of man as forming a single species, 

 his range is enormous ; but some separate races, as the Americans 

 and Polynesians, have very wide ranges. It is a w T ell-known 

 law that widely-ranging species are much more variable than 

 species with restricted ranges ; and the variability of man may 

 with more truth be compared with that of widely-ranging species, 

 than with that of domesticated animals. 



Not only does variability appear to be induced in man and 

 the lower animals by the same general causes, but in both the 

 same parts of the body are affected in a closely analogous 

 manner. This, has been proved in such full detail by Godron and 



13 Mitfbrd's.' History of Greece,' 

 vol. i. p. 282. It appears also from 

 a passage in Xenophon's ' Memora- 

 bilia,' B. ii. 4 (to which my atten- 

 tion has been called by the Kev. 

 J. N. Hoare), that it was a well 

 recognised principle with the Greeks, 

 .hat men ought to select their wives 

 rith a view to the health ami 



vigour of their children. The Gre- 

 cian poet, Theognis, who lived 550 

 B.C., clearly saw how important 

 selection, if carefully applied, would 

 be for the improvement of mankind. 

 He saw, likewise, that wealth often 

 checks the proper action of sexual 

 selection. He thus writes : 



" With kine and horses, Kurnus ! we proceed 

 By reasonable rules, and choose a breed 

 For profit and increase, at any price ; 

 Of a sound stock, without detect or vice. 

 But, in the daily matches that we make, 

 The price is everything: for money's sake, 

 Men marry : women are in marriage given ; 

 The churl or ruffian, that in wealth has thriven. 

 May match his offspring with the proudest race: 

 Thus everything is mix'd, noble and base ! 

 It' then in outward manner, form, and mind, 

 You find us a degraded, motley kind, 

 Wonder no mo.re, my friend ! the cause is plain, 

 And to lament the consequence is vain." 

 (The Works cf J. Hookham Frere, vol. ii. 1872, p. 334.5 



