ORGAXIC EVOLUTION— MENTAL 188 



races of men as well as to lower animals (sexual love, 

 &c.), are of very subordinate importance. 



It is possible, however, since, as seems probable from 

 the above considerations, the Bushman's power of acquir- 

 ing mental traits is smaller than the Englishman's, that 

 his instincts have undergone less retrogression, and 

 therefore that, while the latter do not differ in kind in 

 the two races, they may differ in degree. They cannot 

 differ in kind, or at least it is highly improbable that 

 they do, because though there is much evidence that 

 man has undergone great retrogression in many direc- 

 tions as regards instinct, there is no evidence that he 

 has undergone evolution in any direction as regards this 

 faculty, his entire mental evolution apparently having 

 been in the direction of the power of acquiring mental 

 traits. This becomes evident when we consider that 

 not only are his powers of instinct on the whole less 

 than those of any other mammal, and very much less 

 than those of any reptile, but that even in those par- 

 ticular instincts which have survived in him, and are 

 essential to his persistence, he shows no evolution beyond 

 lower types. Not one of these instincts is peculiar to 

 him, in not one does he surpass inferior animals. 



If the above be true, it follows, since the evolution 

 of instinct has ceased in man, that no new instincts 

 have been evolved either in the Bushman or the English- 

 man, and therefore that they can differ as regards 

 instinct only in that one race may have more and others 

 less of this or that instinct. But because, even in the 

 Bushman, that which is mentally acquired so greatly 

 overshadows and replaces that which is mentally inborn, 

 practically the whole mental difference between him 

 and the Englishman must consist (1) in the powers of 

 acquiring mental traits, and (2) in the traits acquired, 

 which differ according to differences in the environ- 

 ment, the second factor being of vastly greater import- 



