414 THE DARWINIAN LAW. 



sciously in the animated scale. And lastly, we shall 

 find that men who, in the savage state, are little better 

 than the brutes, their lives being absorbed in the busi- 

 ness of self-preservation and reproduction, are now in 

 the civilised condition becoming conscious of the scheme 

 of nature, and are beginning to assist her by the me- 

 thodical improvement of their mental powers. 



The lower animals have a hard matter to earn their 

 daily bread, and to preserve their children from starv- 

 ation ; and with them the course of true love does not 

 by any means run smooth. Since only a few can succeed 

 in the scramble for food, and not all can obtain mates, 

 for polygamy frequently prevails, it follows as a matter of 

 necessity, that those animals which are the strongest, 

 the swiftest, and the most intelligent, will survive and 

 and leave offspring, and by the continued survival of 

 the fittest, the animated world improves from genera- 

 tion to generation, and rises in the scale. So far as 

 strength and swiftness are concerned, limits are placed 

 upon improvement. But there are no limits to the 

 improvement of intelligence. We find in the lower 

 kingdom muscular power in its perfection ; but the 

 brain is always imperfect, always young, always grow- 

 ing, always capable of being developed. In writing 

 the history of animal progress we must therefore con- 

 centrate our attention upon the brain, and we shall 

 find that the development of that organ is in great 

 measure due to the influence of the affections. 



Whether Nature has placed pain at the portals of 

 love throughout the animal kingdom as she has at the 

 portals of maternity, or whatever may be the cause, 

 it is certain that the female flees from the male at 

 the courting season, and that he captures her by means 

 of his strength, swiftness, dexterity, or cunning, in the 



