Works on Biology, etc. 



nature, he uever deviated from the ideas laid down ia 

 these essays. Only a very brief outline must suflace to 

 convey some of the most important points. 



In the childhood of the human race, he believed, Natural 

 Selection would operate mainly on man's body, but in 

 later periods upon the mind. Hence it would happen 

 that the physical forms of the different races were early 

 fixed in a permanent manner. Sharper claws, stronger 

 muscles, swifter feet and tougher hides determine the sur- 

 vival value of lower animals. With man, however, the 

 finer intellect, the readier adaptability to environment, 

 the greater susceptibility to improvement, and the elastic 

 capacity for co-ordination, were the qualities which deter- 

 mined his career. Tribes which are weak in these qualities 

 give way and perish before tribes which are strong in them, 

 whatever advantages the former may possess in physical 

 structure. The finest savage has always succumbed before 

 the advance of civilisation. " The Red Indian goes down 

 before the white man, and the New Zealander vanishes in 

 presence of the English settler." Nature, careless in this 

 stage of evolution about the body, selects for survival those 

 varieties of mankind which excel in mental qualities. Hence 

 it has happened that the physical characteristics of the differ- 

 ent races, once fixed in very early prehistoric times, have 

 never greatly varied. They have passed out of the range 

 of Natural Selection because they have become comparatively 

 unimportant in the struggle for existence. 



After going into considerable detail of organic and 

 physical development, he says : " The inference I would 

 draw from this class of phenomena is, that a superior in- 

 telligence has guided the development of man in a definite 

 direction, and for a special purpose, just as man guides the 

 development of many animal and vegetable forms." Thus 

 he foreshadows the conclusion,^ to be more fully developed 



7 



