294 CRITIQUES AND ADDRESSES. [XL 



reasoning which, applied to other matters, would assure 

 some reputation to a man of science, and I think we 

 need ask no further why he possesses such a fair supply 

 of brains. In complexity and difficulty, I should say 

 that the intellectual labour of a "good hunter or warrior" 

 considerably exceeds that of an ordinary Englishman. 

 The Civil Service Examiners are held in great terror 

 by young Englishmen ; but even their ferocity never 

 tempted them to require a candidate to possess such a 

 knowledge of a parish, as Mr. Wallace justly points out 

 savages may possess of an area a hundred miles, or more, 

 in diameter. 



But suppose, for the sake of argument, that a savage 

 has more brains than seems proportioned to his wants, 

 all that can be said is that the objection to natural selec- 

 tion, if it be one, applies quite as strongly to the lower 

 animals. The brain of a porpoise is quite wonderful 

 for its mass, and .for the development of the cerebral 

 convolutions. And yet since we have ceased to credit 

 the story of Arion, it is hard to believe that porpoises 

 are much troubled with intellect : and still more difficult 

 is it to imagine that their big brains are only a prepara- 

 tion for the advent of some accomplished cetacean of the 

 future. Surely, again, a wolf must have too much brains, 

 or else how is it that a dog, with only the same quantity 

 and form of brain, is able to develop such singular intelli- 

 gence ? The wolf stands to the dog in the same relation 

 as the savage to the man; and, therefore, if Mr. Wallace's 

 doctrine holds good, a higher power must have super- 

 intended the breeding up of wolves from some inferior 

 stock, in order to prepare them to become dogs. 



Mr. Wallace further maintains that the origin of some 

 of man's mental faculties by the preservation of useful 

 variations is not possible. Such, for example, are " the 

 capacity to form ideal conceptions of space and time, of 



