THURSDAY, ‘DECEMBER 30, 1369 
A DEDUCTION FROM DARWIN’S THEORY 
Bee | Byes is One important consequence deducible from 
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arwin’s profound theory which has not yet been 
noticed so far as I am aware. The theory is capable 
_ under certain reasonable conditions of accounting for the 
fact that the highest forms of civilisation have appeared 
in temperate climates. 
Although some apparent exceptions might be adduced, 
it is no doubt true that man displays his utmost vigour 
and perfection, both of mind and body, in the regions 
intermediate between extreme heat and extreme cold, 
allowance being made for the reduced temperature of 
elevated mountain districts. The explanations hitherto 
given of this fact are of a purely hypothetical and 
shallow character. It is said, for instance, that the 
prolific character of the tropical climate too easily 
» furnishes man with subsistence, so that his powers are 
never properly called into action. On the other hand in 
the Arctic regions nature is too sterile and no exertions can 
lead to the accumulation of much wealth. This explana- 
tion obviously involves the gratuitous hypothesis that 
man has been created with powers exactly suited to be 
called forth by just that degree of difficulty experienced in 
a temperate climate. There are those even who maintain 
' our peculiar British climate to be the very best possible, 
because it taxes our powers of endurance to the last point 
which they can bear, and thus calls forth the greatest 
amount of energy. But here again is the assumption 
that the British people and the British climate were 
specially created to suit each other. 
The theory of natural selection, on the other hand, 
represents that great method by which infinitely numerous 
adaptations will always be produced throughout time. 
Whatever happens in this material world must happen in 
consequence of the properties originally impressed upon 
matter, and our notions of the wisdom embodied in the 
_Creation must be infinitely raised when we understand, 
however imperfectly, its true method. The continual 
- resort to special inventions and adaptations must surely 
be below the greatness of a Power which could so design 
and create matter from the first that it must go on thence- 
forth inventing and adapting forms of life without apparent 
limit, in pursuance of one uniform principle. 
I conceive it to be the essential consequence of Darwin’s 
views that no form of life is to be regarded as a fixed 
form; but that all living beings, including man, are in a 
continual process of adjustment to the conditions in which 
they live. If this be so, it will of necessity follow that the 
longer any race dwells in given circumstances, the more 
perfectly will it become adapted to those circumstances. 
A migratory race, on the contrary, will always be liable to 
enter climates unsuited to it, and less favourable to the 
development of the greatest amount of energy. Negroes 
can bear a tropical heat simply because the race has 
grown more accustomed to it than Europeans, who bring 
with them indeed a superior degree of energy and intellect, 
but soon sicken and fail to reproduce themselves in equal 
_—. perfection. 
- The intellect of man renders him far more migratory 
than most other animals, and when we look over long 
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periods of time we must regard him as in a constant state 
of oscillation between the equator and the borders of per- 
petual snow, It will of necessity follow that the race, as 
a whole, will be better adapted to a medium than to an 
extreme climate. Not only may the same race have 
passed alternately through colder and hotter climates, but 
itis obvious that the tribes which intermix and intermarry 
in temperate regions will have come, some from a hotter 
and some from a colder region. The amalgamated race 
will therefore be precisely adapted to a medium climate. 
The inhabitants of the Arctic regions, on the contrary, 
must have come entirely from a warmer climate, and 
those of a tropical region from a colder climate, so that 
ages must pass before either re-adapts itself perfectly to 
its new circumstances. 
It is hardly to be expected that history can afford com- 
plete corroboration of this theory ; but I do not think that 
historical facts can be adduced in serious opposition to it. 
The progress of archeological and linguistic inquiry shows 
more and more clearly that the civilised parts of the earth 
have been inhabited by a succession of different races. 
A really aboriginal and indigenous people, growing upon 
a single island or spot of ground without kinship with 
other races, is not known to exist ; and it is almost certain 
that all races have descended from a few stocks, if not from 
a single one. The evidences of extensive and frequent 
migrations are thus most complete, even if we had not 
distinct historical facts concerning the rapid and extensive 
movements of the Goths, Huns, Moors, Scandinavians, 
and many other races. 
If the historical evidence disagrees with the theory in 
any point, it is that the migrations from temperate to ex- 
treme climates greatly over-balance any opposite move- 
ment. It would hardly, perhaps, be too much to repre- 
sent the temperate regions of the Old World as the 
birthplace of successive races, which have diverged and 
died away more or less rapidly in distant and extreme 
climates. But if such be the conclusion from historical 
periods, it would only indicate that the human race had 
already acquired, in prehistoric times, a constitution dis- 
playing its greatest vitality in temperate regions. There 
can be no doubt that, were the rest of the world unin- 
habited by man, a very inferior race, such as the negroes 
of tropical Africa, would gradually re-people it ; but they 
cannot do so in the present state of things, because they 
come into conflict with races of superior intellect and 
energy. 
I would add in conclusion that the utmost result of 
speculations of this kind, supposing them to be valid, 
would consist in establishing a general tendency, so that 
the probabilities will be in favour of a great display of 
civilisation occurring in temperate climates rather than 
elsewhere. I do not for a moment suppose that any 
common physical cause, such as soil, climate, mineral 
wealth, or geographical position, or any combination of 
such causes, can alone account for the rise and growth of 
civilisation in Assyria, Egypt, Greece, Italy, or England. 
Material resources are nothing without the mind which 
knows how to use them. No physiology of protoplasm, 
no science that yet has a name, or perhaps ever will have 
aname, can account for the evolution of intellect in all 
its endless developments. The vanity of the Comtists 
leads them to suppose that their philosophy can compass 
