3C0 CONCLUDING REMARKS Chap. XIV. 



ural selection by distinct species; but this view will not 

 explain close similarity between distinct species in a 

 multitude of unimportant details. Now if we bear in 

 mind the numerous points of structure having no rela- 

 tion to expression, in which all the races of man closely 

 agree, and then add to them the numerous points, some 

 of the highest importance and many of the most trilling 

 value, on which the movements of expression directly 

 or indirectly depend, it seems to me improbable in the 

 highest degree that so much similarity, or rather identity 

 of structure, could have been acquired by independent 

 means. Yet this must have been the case if the races 

 of man are descended from several aboriginally distinct 

 species. It is far more probable that the many points 

 of close similarity in the various races are due to inheri- 

 tance from a single parent-form, which had already as- 

 sumed a human character. 



It is a curious, though perhaps an idle speculation, 

 how early in the long line of our progenitors the various 

 expressive movements, now exhibited by man, were suc- 

 cessively acquired. The following remarks will at least 

 serve to recall some of the chief points discussed in this 

 volume. We may confidently believe that laughter, as 

 a sign of pleasure or enjoyment, was practised by our 

 progenitors long before they deserved to be called 

 human; for very many kinds of monkeys, when pleased, 

 utter a reiterated sound, clearly analogous to our laugh- 

 ter, often accompanied by vibratory movements of their 

 jaws or lips, with the corners of the mouth drawn back- 

 wards and upwards, by the wrinkling of the cheeks, and 

 even by the brightening of the eyes. 



We may likewise infer that fear was expressed from 

 an extremely remote period, in almost the same manner 

 as it now is by man; namely, by trembling, the erec- 

 tion of the hair, cold perspiration, pallor, widely opened 



