186 LESSONS FROM NATURE. [CHAP. VI. 



on the other side. No less a writer than Mr. Wallace, the 

 independent originator and by far the best expounder of the 

 theory of natural selection, differs widely from Mr. Darwin as 

 to the question of man s origin. He contends* that some 

 Mr. Wai- special agency was needed to produce the human 

 frame. He specially adverts to the peculiar disposi 

 tion of the hair on man, especially that nakedness of the back 

 which is common to all races of men, and to the peculiar con 

 struction of the foot and hand. He tells us, &quot; the hand of 

 man contains latent capacities and powers which are unused 

 by savages, and must have been even less used by paleolithic 

 man and his still ruder predecessors. It has all the appear 

 ance of an organ prepared for the use of civilised man, and 

 one which was required to render civilisation possible.&quot; 

 Again, speaking of the &quot; wonderful power, range, flexibility, 

 and sweetness of the musical sounds producible by the 

 human larynx,&quot; he adds, &quot; The habits of savages give no in 

 dication of how this faculty could have been developed&quot; . . . 

 &quot; the singing of savages is a more or less monotonous howl 

 ing, and the females seldom sing at all.&quot; ...&quot; It seems as if 

 the organ had been prepared in anticipation of the future 

 progress of man, since it contains latent capacities which are 

 useless to him in his earlier condition.&quot; 



But, indeed, as to this subject, even Mr. Darwin himself 

 admits :f That &quot;neither the enjoyment nor the capacity of 

 producing musical notes are faculties of the least direct use 

 to man in reference to his ordinary habits of life, they. must 

 be ranked amongst the most mysterious with which he is 

 endowed.&quot; 



Mr. Wallace also agrees with us concerning the value he 

 attaches to man s &quot; capacity to form ideal conceptions of space 

 and time, of eternity and infinity the capacity for intense 

 artistic feelings of pleasure, in form, colour, and composition 

 and those abstract notions of form and number which 



* Natural Selection, pp. 332-360. 

 f Descent of Man, vol. ii. p. 333. 



