CH. xxi.] GENESIS OF MAN, INTELLECTUALLY. 289 



favourite pursuits, and engage in rough warfare, at the risk 

 of life and limb, solely or chiefly that he might assist in 

 relieving the miseries of far inferior men, whose direct 

 claim upon his personal sympathies could never be other 

 than slight, on the other hand the Australian has no words 

 in his language to express the ideas of justice and benevo 

 lence, and no amount of teaching can make him compre 

 hend these ideas. For although, like some brute animals, 

 he is not wholly destitute of the primary feelings which 

 underlie them, yet these feelings have been so seldom re 

 peated in his own experience, and that of his ancestors, 

 that he is unable to generalize from them. The lofty soul, 

 which is too sweepingly attributed to man in distinction 

 from other animals, is here as difficult to discover as the 

 godlike intellect or the keen aesthetic sense. 



Jn similar wise is made to disappear the sharp contrast 

 between human and brute animals in capability of progress. 

 Hardly any fact is more imposing to the imagination than 

 the fact that each generation of civilized men is perceptibly 

 more enlightened than the preceding one, while each genera 

 tion of brutes exactly resembles those which have come 

 before it. But the contrast is obtained only by comparing 

 the civilized European of to-day directly with the brute 

 animals known to us through the short period of recorded 

 human history. The capability of progress, however, is by no 

 means shared alike by all races of men. Of the numerous races 

 historically known to us, it has been manifested in a marked 

 degree only by two, the Aryan and Semitic. To a much 

 less conspicuous extent it has been exhibited by the Chinese 

 and Japanese, the Copts of Egypt, and a few of the highest 

 American races. On the other hand, the small-brained races 

 the Australians and Papuans, the Hottentots, and the 

 majority of tribes constituting the widespread Malay and 

 American families appear almost wholly incapable of pro 

 gress, even under the guidance of higher races. The most 



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