222 PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION PART 



conditions which alone made possible that progress 

 which, in its most advanced degree, but a small 

 proportion of the race has reached. For in this 

 question of mental differences the contrast is not 

 between man and ape, but between man savage and 

 civilised ; between the incapacity of the one to 

 count beyond his fingers, and the capacity of the 

 other to calculate an eclipse of the sun or a transit 

 of Venus. It would therefore seem that Mr. Wallace 

 should introduce his ' spiritual essence, or nature/ in 

 the intermediate, and not in the initial stage. 



As answer to Mr. Wallace's argument that in 

 their large and well - developed brains, savages 

 { possess an organ quite disproportioned to their 

 requirements/ Huxley cites Wallace's own remarks 

 in his paper on Instinct in Man and Animals as to 

 the considerable demands made by the needs of the 

 lower races on their observing faculties which call 

 into play no mean exercise of brain function. 



* Add to this/ Huxley says, ' the knowledge 

 which a savage is obliged to gain of the properties 

 of plants, of the characters and habits of animals, 

 and of the minute indications by which their course 

 is discoverable ; consider that even an Australian 

 can make excellent baskets and nets, and neatly 

 fitted and beautifully balanced spears; that he learns 

 to use these so as to be able to transfix a quartern 

 loaf at sixty yards ; and that very often, as in the 

 case of the American Indians, the language of a 

 savage exhibits complexities which a well -trained 

 European finds it difficult to master ; consider that 

 every time a savage tracks his game, he employs a 

 minuteness of observation, and an accuracy of indue- 



