MENTAL PROGRESS, 207 
in multifarious employments, skilled in human inter- 
course, even if it be one-sided ; and if these rare pheno- 
mena are thoroughly investigated, they still. remain 
behind the average individuals of advanced races. Now 
it is certain that in each race, each individual passes 
through grades in the scale of mental development, 
which, in perfect analogy with the laws of anatomical 
development, are universally: valid; whereas, as we 
have seen, the psychological peculiarities of the race be- 
come valid. But it is in mankind as in the individual ; 
in the lapse of time, it has acquired those higher powers 
of mind which we call Reason. 
History shows, and no one denies, a mental advance, 
but only in nations which have taken part in history, 
and only so long as this part and the exercise of the 
mental organs has been continued. But inferior human 
races exist—we may also call them human species— 
which are related to the others, as are lower animals to 
higher.. It might even be given as the characteristic of 
the genus man, that its species occupy such extraor- 
dinarily different grades of mental condition. We are 
not misled by the contrary statements of missionaries 
and other philanthropists ; by the talk of human dignity 
and divine resemblance; nor do we seek for consolation 
in the development still to be expected in all nations 
which have hitherto lagged behind. It is indeed self- 
- evident from the theory of descent and selection, that 
many of the races now standing far behind in a mental 
point of view will in future have made a great advance. 
But for. others, if we contemplate the ethnology and 
anthropology of savages, not from the standpoint of 
philanthropists and missionaries, but as cool and sober 
