INTELLECTUAL FACULTIES. 125 



of man. These faculties are variable; and we have every reason 

 to believe that the variations tend to be inherited. Therefore, i£ 

 they were formerly of high importance to primeval man and to 

 his ape-like progenitors, they would have been perfected or ad- 

 vanced through natural selection. Of the high importance of the 

 intellectual faculties there can be no doubt, for man mainly owes 

 to them his predominant position in the world. We can see, 

 that in the rudest state of society, the individuals who were the 

 most sagacious, who invented and used the best weapons or 

 traps, and who were best able to defend themselves, would rear 

 the greatest number of offspring. The tribes, which included 

 the largest number of men thus endowed, would increase in 

 number and supplant other tribes. Numbers depend primarily 

 on the means of subsistence, and this depends partly on the phys- 

 ical nature of the country, but in a much higher degree on the 

 arts which are there practiced. As a tribe increases and is vic- 

 torious, it is often still further increased by the absorption of 

 other tribes.^ The stature and strength of the men of a tribe 

 are likewise of some importance for its success, and these depend 

 in part on the nature and amount of the food which can be 

 obtained. In Europe the men of the Bronze period were sup- 

 planted by a race more powerful, and, judging from their sword- 

 handles, with larger hands ;^ but their success was probably still 

 more due to their superiority in the arts. 



All that we know about savages, or may infer from their tra- 

 ditions and from old monuments, the history of which is quite 

 forgotten by the present inhabitants, show that from the remotest 

 times successful tribes have supplanted other tribes. Relics of 

 extinct or forgotten tribes have been discovered throughout the 

 civilized regions of the earth, on the wild plains of America, and 

 on the isolated islands in the Pacific Ocean. At the present day 

 civilized nations are everywhere supplanting barbarous nations, 

 excepting where the climate opposes a deadly barrier; and they 

 succeed mainly, though not exclusively, through their arts, which 

 are the products of the intellect. It is, therefore, highly probable 

 that with mankind the intellectual faculties have been mainly 

 and gradually perfected through natural selection; and this con- 

 clusion is sufficient for our purpose. Undoubtedly it would be 

 interesting to trace the development of each separate faculty 

 from the state in which it exists in the lower animals to that in 

 which it exists in man; but neither my ability nor knowledge 

 permits the attempt. 



^ After a time the members or tribes which are absorbed Into another 

 tribe assume, as Sir Henry Maine remarlcs ('Ancient Law," 1851, p 19}), 

 that they are the co-descendants of the same ancestors. 



3 Morlot, 'Soc. Vaud. Sc. Nat.' 1860, p. 294. 



