1S2 ARBOREAL MAN 



nature, fierce struggles, and the consequent elimination 

 of the weak, but possibly moral, individual, and all the 

 other non-social tendencies, that the law of self-preserva- 

 tion in an active, possibly bloody, life-contest connotes. 

 With this proposition we will deal further, leaving alto- 

 gether untouched the fourth extension of Dwight's line 

 of reasoning — " that the evolution of the soul is untenable 

 as a scientific proposition." 



For the present purposes we will take as our stand- 

 point the thesis, that the rise of the neopallium is the 

 tangible anatomical evidence of the perfection of cerebral 

 processes, and that in the ordinary sequence of evolution 

 the neopallial dominance and complexity culminate in 

 the production of those faculties ordinarily connoted in 

 the term " intelligence." An elaboration of intelligence, 

 which we conceive to be simply attained in the ordinary 

 workings of evolution, demands the rights of recognition 

 as a more or less distinct faculty called " reason." It 

 remains for us to ascertain if there is any indication in 

 this evolution that an extension of the process along its 

 normal lines could possibly lead to the formation of any 

 basis for what is termed " higher ideals of conduct." 

 It is necessary, first of all, to rid the problem of any sug- 

 gestion that these things came about by a process of 

 *' survival of the fittest," in the sense that this survival 

 means dominance in physical contest, in the elimination 

 of the unfit in the sense of the physical weakling. There 

 may be a much more peaceful evolution — but an evolution 

 none the less — and I regard the arboreal life as a school 

 in which some of the lessons of conduct were learned. 



We have seen that arboreal life tends towards the reduc- 

 tion of the number of young produced at a birth, and that, 

 in the Primate stock, it is the rule that but a single off- 

 spring is begot at each pregnancy. This, as I have 

 pointed out in a previous chapter and elsewhere, is a 

 mere adaptation to life circumstances — an application 

 of the general rule that when no natural nursery is to 



