PERFECTIBILITY OF MAN. 173 



cities give curious proof of that native sagacity which 

 man has elsewhere so largely appropriated to his own 

 uses or pleasures. The effect of domestication, indeed, 

 is chiefly that of altering the physical qualities of 

 animals and adapting them to special purposes. But 

 their peculiar instincts also, and those faculties of in- 

 telligence and feeling which bring them nearest to man, 

 are susceptible of changes, propagated by generation, 

 and often becoming permanent in the race permanent 

 at least as far as experience goes, for in no case can we 

 be sure that a return to the primitive conditions of the 

 animal might not restore more or less of the original 

 type. To a certain extent, indeed, we know that this 

 happens, but it is equally sure that in some animals 

 the artificial habits acquired become secondary in- 

 stincts, modify the organs and functions, and per- 

 petuate in the race the new qualities acquired. 



The obvious bearing of this on the case of man is 

 open to one important exceptional remark. He alone 

 is submitted to no superior being on the earth capable 

 of thus controlling or perfecting his natural instincts, of 

 cultivating his reason, or of creating new capacities and 

 modes of action. As far as we can venture to interpret 

 the design under which he exists, man, as a species, is 

 left to the self-development of the faculties with which 

 he is gifted faculties varying widely in degree, but 

 alike in quality throughout mankind acting and acted 

 upon by the accidents of the world without submitted 

 equally to physical conditions and social influences 

 subject, further, to congenital propensities and passions 

 in the use or abuse of which lies the exaltation or 



