PSYCHICAL EVOLUTION 131 



The psychology of civilised man, though derived 

 from that of the savage, and hence resembling it 

 fundamentally, is, nevertheless, very different from 

 it, both in character and in what it contains. 

 The mind of the savage is rude, unresourceful, 

 vicious, and childlike, while that of the civilised 

 man or woman may be overflowing with wisdom 

 and benignity. This gulf has not been covered 

 by a stride, but by the slow operation of the 

 same laws of Inheritance, Variation, and Selec- 

 tion by which all progress has been brought 

 about. 



7. Degeneration is a necessary part of the pro- 

 cess of organic evolution. All progress, whether 

 anatomical, intellectual, or social, takes place 

 through selection, and selection means the pining 

 and ultimate passing away of that which is left. In 

 individual evolution it is organs, ideas, and traits 

 of character that are eliminated, and in social 

 evolution it is customs and institutions. One of 

 the reasons given in the preceding chapter for 

 the belief in the evolution of structures is the 

 existence in man and other animals of vestigial 

 organs, organs which in lower forms of life are 

 useful, but which in higher forms are represented 

 by useless or even injurious remnants. Similar 

 remnants are found in the psychology of man and 

 other animals. These vestiges of mind are not so 

 easily recognised as the vestiges of structure, 

 but they are everywhere. We find them in the 

 antiquated instincts of man and the domestic 

 animals, in the silent letters and worn-out words 



9—2 



