[36 The Descent of Man. PabtI, 



natural selection, it apparently favours the better development 

 of the body, by means of good food and the freedom from occa- 

 sional hardships. This may be inferred from civilised men 

 having been found, wherever compared, to be physically 

 stronger than savages. 13 They appear also to have equal powers 

 of endurance, as has been proved in many adventurous ex- 

 peditions. Even the great luxury of the rich can be but little 

 detrimental ; for the expectation of life of our aristocracy, at all 

 ages and of both sexes, is very little inferior to that of healthy 

 English lives in the lower classes. 14 



We will now look to the intellectual faculties. If in each 

 grade of society the members were divided into two equal 

 bodies, the one including the intellectually superior and the 

 other the inferior, there can be little doubt that the former 

 would succeed best in all occupations, and rear a greater number 

 of children. Even in the lowest walks of life, skill and ability 

 must be of some advantage ; though in many occupations, 

 owing to tho great division of labour, a very small one. Hence 

 in civilised nations there will be some tendency to an increase 

 both in the number and in the standard of the intellectually 

 able. But I do not wish to assert that this tendency may not be 

 more than counterbalanced in other ways, as by the multiplica- 

 tion of the reckless and improvident ; but even to such as these, 

 ability must be some advantage. 



It has often been objected to views like the foregoing, that the 

 most eminent men who have ever lived have left no offspring to 

 inherit their great intellect. Mr. Galton says, 15 " I regret I am 

 '"' unable to solve the simple question whether, and how far, 

 " men and women who are prodigies of genius are infertile. I 

 " have, however, shewn that men of eminence are by no means 

 " so." Great lawgivers, the fouuders of beneficent, religions, 

 great philosophers and discoverers in science, aid the progress of 

 mankind in a far higher degree by their works than by leaving 

 a numerous progeny. In the case of corporeal structures, it is 

 the selection of the slightly better-endowed and the elimination 

 of the slightly less well-endowed individuals, and not the pre- 

 servation of strongly-marked and rare anomalies, that leads to 

 the advancement of a species. le do it will be with the intellectual 

 faculties, since the somewhat abler men in each grade of society 



13 Quatrefages, ' Revue des C'-.rs 1870, p. 115. 



Scientifiques,' 1867-68, p. 659. 15 'Hereditary Genius,' 1870, p. 



14 See the f\fth and sixth columns, 330. 



compiled from good authorities, in 16 ' Origin of Species ' (fifth edi- 



the table given in Mr. E. R. Lan- tion, 1869), p. 104. 

 kesfeer's ' Comparative Longevity,' 



