358 THE LIMITS OF NATURAL SELECTION 
possible, were not the organ of the mind of man pre- 
pared in advance, fully developed as regards size, 
structure, and proportions, and only needing a few 
generations of use and habit to co-ordinate its com- 
plex functions. The naked and sensitive skin, by 
necessitating clothing and houses, would lead to the 
more rapid development of man’s inventive and con- 
structive faculties; and, by leading to a more refined 
feeling of personal modesty, may have influenced, to a 
considerable extent, his moral nature. The erect form 
of man, by freeing the hands from all locomotive uses, 
has been necessary for his intellectual advancement ; 
and the extreme perfection of his hands, has alone 
rendered possible that excellence in all the arts of civili- 
zation which raises him so far above the savage, and 
is perhaps but the forerunner of a higher intellectual 
and moral advancement. The perfection of his vocal 
organs has first led to the formation of articulate 
speech, and then to the development of those exqui- 
sitely toned sounds, which are only appreciated by the 
higher races, and which are probably destined for more 
elevated uses and more refined enjoyment, in a higher 
condition than we have yet attained to. So, those 
taculties which enable us to transcend time and space, 
and to realize the wonderful conceptions of mathe- 
matics and philosophy, or which give us an intense 
yearning for abstract truth, (all of which were occasion- 
ally manifested at such an early period of human his- 
tory as to be far in advance of any of the few practical 
applications which have since grown out of them), are 
