28 THE DESCENT OF MAN. 



strictly domesticated animal; for his breeding has never long 

 been controlled, either by methodical or unconscious selection. 

 No race or body of men has been so completely subjugated by 

 other men, as that certain individuals should be preserved, and 

 thus unconsciously selected, from somehow excelling in utility 

 to their masters. Nor have certain male and female individuals 

 been intentionally picked out and matched, except in the well- 

 known case of the Prussian grenadiers; and in this case man 

 obeyed, as might have been expected, the law of methodical selec- 

 tion; for it is asserted that many tall men were reared in the 

 villages inhabited by the grenadiers and their tall wives. In 

 Sparta, also, a form of selection was followed, for it was enacted 

 that all children should be examined shortly after birth; the well- 

 formed and vigorous being preserved, the others left to perish.'' 



If we consider all the races of man as forming a single species, 

 his range is enormous; but some separate races, as the Americans 

 and Polynesians, have very wide ranges. It is a well-known 

 law that widely-ranging species are much more variable than 

 species with restricted ranges; and the variability of man may 

 with more truth be compared with that of widely-ranging species, 

 than with that of domesticated animals. 



Not only does variability appear to be induced in man and 

 the lower animals by the same general causes, but in both the 



"Mitford's 'History of Greece,' vol. i. p. 282. It appears also from 

 a passage In Xenophon's 'Memorabilia,' B. ii. 4 (to which my attention 

 has been called by the Rev. J. N. Hoare), that it was a well recognized 

 principle with the Greeks, that men ought to select their wives with a 

 view to the health and vigor of their children. The Grecian poel, 

 Theognis, who lived 550 B. C., clearly saw how important selection, if 

 carefully applied, would be for the improvement of mankind. He saw, 

 likewise, that wealth often checks the proper action of sexual selec- 

 tion. He thus writes: 



"With kine and horses, Kurnus! we proceed 

 By reasonable rules, and choose a breed 

 For profit and increase, at any price; 

 Of a sound stock, without defect or vice. 

 But, in the daily matches that we make. 

 The price is e^'erything: for money's sake. 

 Men marry; women are in marriage given; 

 The churl or ruffian, that in wealth has thriven. 

 May match his offspring with the proudest race; 

 Thus everything is mix'd, noble and base! 

 If then in outward manner, form, and mind, 

 Tou find us a degraded motley kind. 

 Wonder no more, my friend! the cause is plain. 

 And to lament the ccnsequence is vain." 

 (The Works of J. Hookham Frere, vol. ii. 1872, p. 334.) 



