470 



OKIGIN AND DISTEIBUTION OF MAN. 



[Gh. XLIII. 



some cases may survive in certain stations^ tlie intermediate 

 forms having been absorbed into one or other of the two 



extremes. 



During a period Avhen the pov^ers of Variation 



and Selection are so active, a considerable number of in- 

 dividuals closely allied in their organisation will intermarry 

 freely and multiply within a limited geographical area, and 

 will transmit the same peculiarities of bodily and mental 

 structure to their offspring. When, by this process, a larw 



homogeneous population has been formed, and their characters 



have become fixed by inheritance, it will be long before sub- 

 sequent changes of climate, soil, food, and other conditions, 

 and, in the case of man, customs and institutions^ wall cause 

 any marked deviations from the normal type. 



That it should be so difficult for us to picture to ourselves 

 the manner in which a species may be elaborated by Varia- 

 tion and Selection, need not surprise us when we consider 

 how hard it is to obtain a clear idea of the growth and estab- 

 lishment of a new language, even when we are sure that the 

 same has originated only a few centuries before our time. 

 In the case of the English tongue, for example, it would not 

 be easy to fix upon the exact year or generation when it was 

 formed, or to follow it through its various transitional phases 

 w^hen the Anglo-Saxon stock was becoming modified by incor- 

 porating into it French, Danish, and Latin terms and idioms, 

 or when new modes of pronunciation were coming into vogue 

 or new and original expressions invented. The unity and per- 

 manency of character which finally sprang out of the blend- 

 ing together of such heterogeneous materials is a singular 



phenomenon, and the want of pliancy of the same language 



when transplanted into distant regions is also remarkable. 

 The modifiability of the language and its tendency to vary 

 never ceases, so that it would readily run into new dialects 

 and modes of pronunciation if there were no communication 

 with the mother country direct or indirect. In this respect its 

 mutability will resemble that of species, and it can no more 

 spring up independently in separate districts than species 

 -can, assuming that these last are all of derivative origin. 



Whether man'^s bodily frame hecam^e more stationary ivhenhis 

 ■miind became more advanced. — Mr. Wallace, when commenting 



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