SELECTION ON MAN. 317 
moment that the form of his body became stationary, 
his mind would become subject to those very infln- 
ences from which his body had escaped; every slight 
variation ‘in his mental and moral nature which should 
enable him better to guard against adverse circum- 
stances, 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 successively die out, and that rapid advancement 
of mental organization would occur, which has raised 
the very lowest races of man 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 European races. 
Influence of external Nature in the development of the 
Human Mind. 
But from the time when this mental and moral 
advance commenced, and man’s physical character 
became fixed and almost immutable, a new series of 
causes would come into action, and take part in his 
mental growth. The diverse aspects of nature would 
now make themselves felt, and profoundly influence the 
character of the primitive man. 
When the power that had hitherto modified the body 
kad its action transferred to the mind, then races would 
advance and become improved, merely by the harsh dis- 
cipline of a sterile soil and inclement seasons. Under 
