GENERAL, SUMMARY. 613 



to think, be highly distasteful to many. But there can hardly 

 be a doubt that we are descended from barbarians. The aston- 

 ishment which I felt on first seeing a party of Fuegians on a 

 wild and broken shore will never be forgotten by me, for the 

 reflection at once rushed into my mind — such were our ancestors. 

 These men were absolutely naked and bedaubed with paint, their 

 long hair was tangled, their mouths frothed with excitement, 

 and their expression was wild, startled, and distrustful. They pos- 

 sessed hardly any arts, and like wild animals lived on what they 

 could catch; they had no government, and were merciless to 

 every one not of their own small tribe. He who has seen a sav- 

 age in his native land will not feel much shame, if forced to ac- 

 knowledge that the blood of some more humble creature ilows 

 in his veins. For my own part I would as soon be descended from 

 that heroic little monkey, who braved his dreaded enemy in order 

 to save the life of his keeper, or from that old baboon, who de- 

 scending from the mountains, carried away in triumph his young 

 comrade from a crowd of astonished dogs — as from a savage who 

 delights to torture his enemies, offers up bloody sacrifices, prac- 

 tices infanticide without remorse, treats his wives like slaves, 

 knows no decency, and is haunted by the grossest superstitions. 



Man may be ex'cused for feeling some pride at having risen, 

 though not through his own exertions, to the very summit of the 

 organic scale; and the fact of his having thus risen, instead of 

 having been aboriginally placed there, may give him hope for a 

 still higher destiny in the distant future. But we are not here 

 concerned with hopes or fears, only with the truth as far as our 

 reason permits us to discover it; and I have given the evidence 

 to the best of my ability. We must, however, acknowledge, as it 

 seems to me, that man with all his noble qualities, with sympathy 

 which feels for the most debased, with benevolence which extends 

 not only to other men but to the humblest living creature, with 

 his god-like intellect which has penetrated into the movements 

 and constitution of the solar system— with all these exalted pow- 

 ers—Man still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his 

 lowly origin. 



THE END. 



40 



