172 DARWINISM STATED BY DARWIN HIMSELF. 



whether man is descended from some small species, like 

 the chimpanzee, or from one as powerful as the gorilla ; 

 and, therefore, we can not say whether man has become 

 larger and stronger, or smaller and weaker, than his 

 ancestors. We should, however, bear in mind that an 

 animal possessing great size, strength, and ferocity, and 

 which, like the gorilla, could defend itself from all ene- 

 mies, would not perhaps have become social ; and this 

 would most effectually have checked the acquirement of 

 the higher mental qualities — such as sympathy and the 

 love of his fellows. Hence it might have been an im- 

 mense advantage to man to have sprung from some com- 

 paratively weak creature. 



The small strength and speed of man, his want of 

 natural weapons, etc., are more than counterbalanced, 

 firstly, by his intellectual powers, through which he has 

 formed for himself weapons, tools, etc., though still re- 

 maining in a barbarous state, and, secondly, by his social 

 qualities, which lead him to give and receive aid from his 

 fellow-men. No country in the world abounds in a greater 

 degree with dangerous beasts than Southern Africa ; no 

 country presents more fearful physical hardships than the 

 Arctic regions ; yet one of the puniest of races, that of 

 the Bushmen, maintains itself in Southern Africa, as do 

 the dwarfed Esquimaux in the Arctic regions. The an- 

 cestors of man were, no doubt, inferior in intellect, and 

 probably in social disposition, to the lowest existing sav- 

 ages ; but it is quite conceivable that they might have 

 existed, or even flourished, if they had advanced in intel- 

 lect, while gradually losing their brute-like powers, such 

 as that of climbing trees, etc. But these ancestors would 

 not have been exposed to any special danger, even if far 

 more helpless and defenseless than any existing savages, 

 had they inhabited some warm continent or large island, 



