GENERAL ADAPTATIONS 315 



scattered to a considerable distance by the feet of tapirs, deer, 

 or peccaries, and when at last the seeds fell out, perhaps 

 aided by the teeth or feet of these animals, some of them 

 would almost certainly be trodden into the ground, and this 

 would be facilitated by their sub-angular shape. If this is 

 the mode of dispersal it has proved very successful, for the 

 species is widely scattered in moderate-sized groves over a 

 considerable portion of the Amazonian forests. The main 

 facts and probabilities clearly point to the conclusion that 

 the extensive group of nut-like fruits or seeds are intended 

 to be eaten, not by birds while on the trees, but by ground- 

 feeding animals to be devoured wholesale, in order to dis- 

 perse and save a few which may germinate and produce 

 another generation of trees. 



The Colours of Plants and Animals in relation to Man 



The views of Haeckel and of the whole school of 

 Monists, as well as of most of the followers of Spencer and 

 Darwin, are strongly antagonistic to the idea that in the 

 various groups of phenomena we have so far touched upon 

 there has been in any real sense a preparation of the earth 

 for man ; and those who advocate such a theory are usually 

 treated with scorn as being unscientific, or with contempt as 

 being priest-ridden. Darwin himself was quite distressed at 

 my rejection of his own conclusion that even man's highest 

 qualities and powers had been developed out of those of the 

 lower animals by natural or sexual selection. Several critics 

 accused me of " appealing to first causes " in order to get 

 over difficulties ; of maintaining that " our brains are made 

 by God and our lungs by natural selection " ; and that, in 

 point of fact, " man is God's domestic animal." This was 

 when I published my Contributions to the Theory of Natural 

 Selection, in 1870, its last chapter on The Limits of 

 Natural Selection as applied to Man, being the special 

 object of animadversion, because I pointed out that some of 

 man's physical characters and many of his mental and moral 

 faculties could not have been produced and developed to 

 their actual perfection by the law of natural selection alone, 

 because they are not of survival value in the struggle for 

 existence. 



