THE PROBABLE FUTURE OF THE HUMAN RACE. 149 



covered the terrestrial surface with very intelligent individuals. But 

 from this happy period, and even, I suppose, during this period, there 

 will be some families less intelligent and less provident than others. 

 These will make the greatest additions to the population, and their num- 

 bers constantly renewed will greatly aiiect the supposed progression of 

 intelligence, to say nothing of other causes of arrest. 



Ill order to comprehend the probable facts in all their significance, 

 and to connect them with the laws of selection, it is absolutely neces- 

 sary, 1st, to attribute a major importance to the material circumstances, 

 which must be manifested from the present time during several thou- 

 sands of years j 2d, to apply the principle of the theory of Mr. Darwin to 

 the human species. I call the principle of the theory the forced adap- 

 tation of organized beings to surrounding circumstances of every kind, 

 the result of which is that the modifications preserved are sometimes 

 good, sometimes bad — that is, according to our human conception of 

 what is good or bad. We may form an idea in regard to goodness and 

 l)erfection, but the course of events may not be in accordance with this 

 idea, since many obstacles may intervene during a series of several 

 thousands of years. The world to-day is occupied by an infinite num- 

 ber of vegetable and animal species, partially developed and imperfect, 

 if the complication of organs and the division of functions can be con- 

 sidered imperfections. These inferior beings are adapted to the cir- 

 cumstances which now exist. They are better adapted to these circum- 

 stances than others we call superior, and it will be so i^erhaps for an 

 immense series of centuries. We may say the same of human races 

 and families. The rudest are sometimes the best adapted to certain 

 conditions. Thus, the negroes perfectly resist equatorial climates, and 

 in our civilized countries there are debased populations which accom- 

 modate themselves to miserable conditions of life such as others coidd 

 not at all endure. 



If men content with little did not eSist, they would be formed by vari- 

 ability and selection. We do not know to what extent frugality and 

 indifference to comfort might be carried in the human race, if it were 

 not for the intervention of police-regulations aud public opinion. Ac- 

 cording to what has been related of Hindoo and Egyptian agriculturists, 

 long-continued hardship produces a granivorous or frugivorous race, 

 singularly economical and very fruitful. In our great cities of Europe, 

 notwithstanding the severity of climate, we should find families estab- 

 lished in damp, subterranean abodes, under bridges, even in sewers, aud 

 adapting themselves to the conditions of existence by the premature 

 death of the most feeble, if the will of other men did not interfere. Fur- 

 thermore, coarse and immoral individuals are unfortunatelj' adapted to 

 certain conditions of civilized countries, such as revolutions, robbery, 

 unjust appropriation of property by needy legislators, wars without suf- 

 ficient grounds, aggressive, &c., while other individuals are adapted to 

 conditions moral, wise, just, &c., which at the same time exist. If at 



