PROGRESS OF MAN. 169 



man. Concurrently with the greater develop- 

 ment of the brain, the jaws of the civilised 

 nations are growing shorter, and, as a natural 

 consequence, the wisdom teeth are becoming 

 rudimentary, for while they are always perfectly 

 developed in the negro races, in the white races 

 they have generally only two fangs, are de- 

 veloped late, and lost early.* The resemblance 

 between the children of civilised races and 

 the adults of savage races has frequently been 

 pointed out. The child is affectionate, impulsive, 

 violent, weak in reasoning power, and quick in 

 imitation ; while its face is rounder and its nose 

 flatter than in adults. All these characteristics 

 are usually met with among barbarous nations. 

 But children have a great advantage over 

 savages, for they are born into our civilisation, 

 and it is theirs by inheritance. With savages 

 civilisation is an external agency which they can 

 neither conform to nor resist, and which destroys 

 them by the force of its own superiority. It 

 appears that a civilised nation cannot co-exist 

 with a barbarous one, and that the latter will 

 simply die out in its presence, even without any 



* Darwin, " Descent of Man," vol. i. pp. 26, 27. 



