no PESSIMISM. 



was proof against toothache, but Pessimism at any 

 rate can convert toothache into a proof of Its philoso- 

 phy. And, more generally, civilized man becomes 

 far more subject to minor ailments, which, together 

 with his nervous sensitiveness, probably make '' a 

 bad cold " as painful as a deadly disease was to a 

 savage. In fact, the higher races of man seem, like 

 the higher breeds of domestic animals, to develop 

 an astonishing aptitude for illness, a delicateness 

 and want of stamina which makes them suffer 

 acutely when they have to bear privations, even 

 when their superior morale enables them to bear up 

 against them, and their superior knowledge enables 

 them to delay death. 



Again, there Is a progressive loss In the power 

 of recuperation under injury as we advance to the 

 higher forms of life. Just as a crab, on losing a limb, 

 will grow another, or as a snail can repair the loss 

 even of Its head, so savage races will recover from 

 hurts which would prove fatal to Europeans. And 

 if this process goes on, we may justly dread the 

 time when the merest scratch will prove an Incurable 

 wound. 



Or again, we find several facts about the repro- 

 duction of the race, which may well occasion des- 

 pondency. Births are easier and safer among 

 savages than among civilized men, and most difficult 

 among the most civilized of these. And other facts 

 connected with this subject seem to set a limit to the 

 intellectual development of man. There seems to 

 be a decided tendency for highly educated women 

 to be sterile, probably because their organism does 

 not possess the superfluous energy which renders 

 reproduction possible. And, to a large extent, the 

 explanation both of this and the previous phenome- 



