224 THE GENESIS OF SPECIES [Chap. 



is sometimes deemed sufficient for " smart " remarks us to 

 " ape characters," &c., wliich are as untrue as irrelevant. It 

 should not be forgotten how extremely ditticult it is to enter 

 into the ideas and feelings of an alien race. If in the nine- 

 teenth century a French theatrical audience can witness 

 ^villl acquiescent approval, as a type of English manners 

 and ideas, the representation of a marquis who sells his 

 wife at Smithfield, &c. &c., it is surely no wonder if the 

 ideas of a tribe of newly visited savages should be more or 

 less misunderstood. To enter into such ideas requires long 

 and familiar intimacy, like that experienced by the explorer 

 of the ^lalay Archi[)elago. From him and others, we have 

 abundant evidence that moral ideas exist, at least in germ, 

 in savage races of men, while they sometimes attain even 

 a highly developed state. No amount of evidence as to 

 acts of moral depravity is to the point, as the object here 

 aimed at is to establish that moral intuitions exist in 

 savages, not that their actions are good.^ 



Objections, however, are sometimes drawn from the dif- 

 ferent notions, as to the moral value of certain acts, enter- 

 tained by men of various countries or of different epochs ; 

 also from the difficulty of knowing what particular actions 



1 As to the fimdamental and essential similarity between men of tlie 

 most diverse races, Mr. Darwin's recent work on the "Descent of Man," 

 vol. i. pp. 34 and 232, may be quoted with advantage. He there tells us: 

 "The Fuegians rank amongst the lowest barbarians ; but I was continu- 

 ally stnu'k with surprise hnw closely the three natives on board H.M.8. 

 ' lleagle,' who had lived some years in England and could talk a little 

 English, resembled us in disposition jnul in most of our mental faculties." 

 Again: "The American aborigines, Negroes and ?^uropeans differ as 

 much from each other in mind jus any three races that can be named ; yet 

 I was ince.ssantly stniek, whilst living with the Fuegians on board the 

 'Beagle,' with the many little traits f)f eharaeter showing how similar their 

 niinds were to ours ; and so it waa with a liiU-Moodcd negro with whom 1 

 hap]H*ned once to be intimate." 



