222 THE GENESIS OF SPECIES. [Chap. 



among the lowest and most degraded of savages. If from 

 among these, individuals can be brought forward who seem 

 to be destitute of any moral conception, similar cases also 

 may easily be found in highly-civilized communities. Such 

 cases tell no more against moral intuitions than do cases 

 of color-blindness or idiotism tell against sight and reason. 

 We have thus a most important and conspicuous fact, the 

 existence of which is fatal to the theory of " Natural Selec- 

 tion," as put forward of late by Mr. Darwin and his most 

 ardent followers. It must be remarked, however, that what- 

 ever force this fact may have against a belief in the origi- 

 nation of man from brutes by minute, fortuitous variations, 

 it has no force whatever against the conception of the or- 

 derl}'^ evolution and successive manifestation of specific 

 forms by ordinary natural law — even if we include among 

 such the upright frame, the ready hand, and massive brain, ^ 

 of man himself. 



