480 THE INFLUENCE OF MIND. 



structure ; as an animal he would remain almost stationary ; 

 the changes of the surrounding universe would cease to have 

 upon him that powerful modifying effect which it exercises 

 over other parts of the organic world. But from the 

 moment that his body became stationary, his mind would 

 become subject to those very influences from which his body 

 had escaped ; every slight variation in his mental and moral 

 nature which should enable him better to guard against 

 adverse circumstances, and combine for mutual comfort and 

 protection, would be preserved and accumulated ; the better 

 and higher specimens of our race would therefore increase and 

 spread, the lower and more brutal would give way and suc- 

 cessively die out, and that rapid advancement of mental 

 organisation would occur, which has raised the very lowest 

 races of men so far above the brutes, (although differing so 

 little from some of them in physical structure), and, in 

 conjunction with scarcely perceptible modifications of form, 

 has developed the wonderful intellect of the Germanic 

 races." 



Mr. Wallace appears to me, however, to press his argu- 

 ment a little too far when he says that man is no longer 

 "influenced by natural selection," and that his body has 

 " become stationary." Slow and gradual changes still 

 take place, although his "mere bodily structure" long 

 ago became of less importance to man than "that subtle 

 force we term mind." This, as Mr. Wallace eloquently 

 says, "with a naked and unprotected body, this gave him 

 clothing against the varying inclemencies of the seasons. 

 Though unable to compete with the deer in swiftness, or 

 with the wild bull in strength, this gave him weapons where- 

 with to capture or overcome both. Though less capable than 

 most other animals of living on the herbs and the fruits that 

 unaided nature supplies, this wonderful faculty taught him 

 to govern and direct nature to his own benefit, and make her 



