MENTAL PROGRESS. 297 



in multifarious employments, skilled in human inter- 

 course, even if it be one-sided ; and if these rare pheno- 

 mena are thoroughly investigated, they still remain 

 behind the average individuals of advanced races. Now 

 it is certain that in each race, each individual passes 

 through grades in the scale of mental development, 

 which, in perfect analogy with the laws of anatomical 

 development, are universally valid ; whereas, as we 

 have seen, the psychological peculiarities of the race be- 

 come valid. But it is in mankind as in the individual ; 

 in the lapse of time, it has acquired those higher powers 

 of mind which we call Reason. 



History shows, and no one denies, a mental advance, 

 but only in nations which have taken part in history, 

 and only so long as this part and the exercise of the 

 mental organs has been continued. But inferior human 

 races exist — we may also call them human species — 

 which are related to the others, as are lower animals to 

 higher. It might even be given as the characteristic of 

 the genus man, that its species occupy such extraor- 

 dinarily different grades of mental condition. We are 

 not misled by the contrary statements of missionaries 

 and other philanthropists ; by the talk of human dignity 

 and divine resemblance ; nor do we seek for consolation 

 in the development still to be expected in all nations 

 which have hitherto lagged behind. It is indeed self- 

 evident from the theory of descent and selection, that 

 many of the races now standing far behind in a mental 

 point of view will in future have made a great advance. 

 But for others, if we contemplate the ethnology and 

 anthropology of savages, not from the standpoint of 

 philanthropists and missionaries, but as cool and sober 



