198 NATURAL SELECTION ux 



how can we conceive that early man, as an animal, gained 

 anything by purely erect locomotion? Again, the hand of 

 man contains latent capacities and powers which are unused 

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

 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. Apes 

 make little use of their separate fingers and opposable thumbs. 

 They grasp objects rudely and clumsily, and look as if a much 

 less specialised extremity would have served their purpose as 

 well. I do not lay much stress on this, but, if it be proved 

 that some intelligent power has guided or determined the 

 development of man, then we may see indications of that 

 power in facts which, by themselves, would not serve to 

 prove its existence. 



The Voice of Man. The same remark will apply to another 

 peculiarly human character, the wonderful power, range, 

 flexibility, and sweetness of the musical sounds producible 

 by the human larynx, especially in the female sex. The 

 habits of savages give no indication of how this faculty could 

 have been developed by natural selection, because it is never 

 required or used by them. The singing of savages is a more 

 or less monotonous howling, and the females seldom sing at 

 all. Savages certainly never choose their wives for fine voices,- 

 but for rude health, and strength, and physical beauty. 

 Sexual selection could not therefore have developed this 

 wonderful power, which only comes into play among civilised 

 people. It seems as if the organ had been prepared in anti- 

 cipation of the future progress of man, since it contains latent 

 capacities which are useless to him in his earlier condition. 

 The delicate correlations of structure that give it such mar- 

 vellous powers could not therefore have been acquired by 

 means of natural selection. 



The Origin of some of Man's Mental Faculties, by the pre- 

 servation of Useful Variations, not possible 

 Turning to the mind of man, we meet with many difficulties 

 in attempting to understand how those mental faculties, 

 which are especially human, could have been acquired by the 

 preservation of useful variations. At first sight, it would 



