THE DESCENT OB ORIGIN OF MAN 73 



whicli included all the individuals best adapted by their 

 powers of movemeqt for gaining subsistence, or for defend- 

 ing tbemselves, would on an average survive in greater 

 numbers, and procreate more offspring than the other and 

 less well-endowed half. 



Man in the rudest state in which he now exists is the 

 most dominant animal that has ever appeared on this earth. 

 He has spread more widely than any other highly organized 

 form, and all others have yielded before him. He mani- 

 festly owes this immense superiority to his intellectual facul- 

 ties, to his social habits, which lead him to aid and defend 

 his fellows, and to his corporeal structure. The supreme 

 importance of these characters has been proved by the final 

 arbitrament of the battle for life. Through his powers of 

 intellect, articulate language has been evolved ; and on this 

 his wonderful advancement has mainly depended. As Mr. 

 Chauncey Wright remarks, °° "a psychological analysis of 

 the faculty of language shows that even the smallest pro- 

 ficiency in it might require more brain power than the great- 

 est proficiency in any other direction." He has invented 

 and is able to use various weapons, tools, traps, etc., with 

 which he defends himself, kills or catches prey, and other- 

 wise obtains food. He has made rafts or canoes for fishing 

 or crossing over to neighboring fertile islands. He has dis- 

 covered the art of making fire, by which hard and stringy 

 roots can be rendered digestible, and poisonous roots or 

 " herbs innocuous. This discovery of fire, probably the great- 

 est ever made by man, excepting language, dates from be- 

 fore the dawn of history. These several inventions, by 

 which man in the rudest state has become so pre-eminent, 

 are the direct results of the development of his powers of 

 observation, memory, curiosity, imagination, and reason. I 

 cannot, therefore, understand how it is that Mr. Wallace" 



*« Limits of Natural Selection, "North American Review," October, 18'70, 

 p. 295. 



" "Quarterly Review," April, 1869, p. 392. This suhject is more fully dis- 

 cussed in Mr. Wallace's "Contrihutions to the Theory of Natural Selection," 

 1810, in which all the essays referred to in this work are republished. The 

 Descent — Vol. I. — 4 



