176 THE DESCENT OF MAN. 



"now in existence cannot get beyond four." Nevertheless, at 

 this early period, the intellectual and social faculties of man 

 could hardly have been inferior in any extreme degree to those 

 possessed at present by the lowest savages; otherwise primeval 

 man could not have been so eminently successful in the struggle 

 for life, as proved by his early and wide diffusion. 



Prom the fundamental differences between certain languages, 

 some philologists have inferred that when man first became 

 widely diffused, he was not a speaking animal; but it may be 

 suspected that languages, far less perfect than any now spoken, 

 aided by gestures, might have been used, and yet have left no 

 traces on subsequent and more highly-developed tongues. With- 

 out the use of some language, however imperfect, it appears 

 doubtful whether man's intellect could have risen to the standard 

 Implied by his dominant position at an early period. 



Whether primeval man, when he possessed but few arts, and 

 those of the rudest kind, and when his power of language was 

 extremely imperfect, would have deserved to be called man, must 

 depend on the definition which we employ. In a series of forms 

 graduating insensibly from some ape-like creature to man as he 

 now exists, it would be impossible to fix on any definite point 

 when the term "man" ought to be used. But this is a matter of 

 very little importance. So again, it is almost a matter of indif- 

 ference whether the so-called races of man are thus designated, 

 or are ranked as species or sub-species; but the latter term ap- 

 pears the more appropriate. Finally, we may conclude that when 

 the principle of evolution is generally accepted, as it surely will 

 be before long, the dispute between the monogenists and the 

 polygenists will die a silent and unobserved death. 



One other question ought not to be passed over without notice, 

 namely, whether, as is sometimes assumed, each sub-species or 

 race of man has sprung from a single pair of progenitors. With 

 our domestic animals a new race can readily be formed by care- 

 fully matching the varying offspring from a single pair, -or even 

 from a single individual possessing some new character; but 

 most of our races have been formed, not intentionally from a 

 selected pair, but unconsciously by the preservation of many in- 

 dividuals which have varied, however slightly, in some useful or 

 desired manner. If in one country stronger and heavier horses, 

 and in another country lighter and fleeter ones, were habitually 

 preferred, we may feel sure that two distinct sub-breeds would 

 be produced in the course of time, without any one pair having 

 been separated and bred from, in either country. Many races 

 have been thus formed, and their manner of formation is closely 

 analogous to that of natural species. We know, also, that the 

 horses taken to the Falkland Islands have, during successive 



