GENERAL SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 70? 



best and rearing the largest number of offspring. Impor- 

 tant as the struggle for existence has been and even still is, 

 yet as far as the highest part of man's nature is concerned 

 there are other agencies more important. For the moral 

 qualities are advanced, either directly or indirectly, much 

 more through the effects of habit, the reasoning powers, 

 instruction, religion, etc., than through natural selection; 

 though to this latter agency may be safely attributed the 

 social instincts which afforded the basis for the develop- 

 ment of the moral sense. 



The main conclusion arrived at in this work, namely, 

 that man is descended from some lowly organized form, 

 will, I regret to think, be highly distasteful to many. But 

 there can hardly be a doubt that we are descended from 

 barbarians. The astonishment which I felt on first seeing 

 a party of Fuegians on a wild and broken shore will never 

 be forgotten by me, for the reflection at once rushed into 

 my mind such were our ancestors. These men were 

 absolutely naked and bedaubed with paint, their long hair 

 was tangled, their months frothed with excitement, and 

 their expression was wild, startled and distrustful. They 

 possessed hardly any arts, and like wild animals lived on 

 what they could catch; they had no government, and were 

 merciless to every one notT of their own small tribe. He 

 who has seen a savage in his native land will not feel much 

 shame, if forced to acknowledge that the blood of some 

 more humble creature flows in his veins. For my own part 

 I would as soon be descended from that heroic little mon- 

 key who braved his dreaded enemy in order to save the 

 life of his keeper, or from that old baboon, who, descend- 

 ing from the mountains, carried away in triumph his 

 young comrade from a crowd of astonished dogs as from 

 a savage who delights to torture his enemies, offers up 

 bloody sacrifices, practices infanticide without remorse, 

 treats his wives like slaves, knows no decency, and is 

 haunted by the grossest superstitions. 



Man may be excused for feeling some pride at having 

 risen, though not through his own exertions, to the very 

 summit of the organic scale; and the fact of his having 

 thus risen, instead of having been aboriginally placed there, 

 may give him hope for a still higher destiny in the distant 

 future. But we a^e not here concerned with hopes or fears, 



