Darwin s Ethical Theory. 163 



by intervening varieties which are now totally 

 extinct. And so far as regards the action of 

 natural selection in the evolution of mind, if, as 

 must be admitted, such slight beneficial varia 

 tions of intelligence, as may now be perceived to 

 occur among animals and to be inherited by their 

 offspring, occurred in the past history of the 

 world, and gave the individuals so favored an ad 

 vantage in the struggle for life ; then it cannot 

 be doubted that natural selection, which issues 

 in the survival of the fittest, must always have 

 spared the most intelligent animals, and might, 

 therefore, in the course of ages, by perpetuat 

 ing the transmitted intelligence of countless gen 

 erations of victorious combatants, have at last 

 evolved such a combination of mental powers as 

 enabled their fortunate possessor, the veritable 

 heir of all the ages, to make weapons for the de 

 struction of his enemies, to use tools for procur 

 ing the satisfaction of his own wants, to utter 

 articulate sounds for convey ing information to his 

 fellows, and, finally, with many additional accom 

 plishments, to come forth as man, the most domi 

 nant of all living creatures, the grandest intellect 

 ual and sole moral being in this terrestrial world. 

 The probability thus established by analogy 

 of general inference, that man s mind is simply a 



