92 THE DESCENT OF MAN 



speed of man, and his slight power of discovering food or 

 of avoiding danger by smell. To these deficiencies there 

 might be added one still more serious, namely, that he can- 

 not climlb quickly, and so escape from enemies. The loss 

 of hair would not have been a great injury to the inhabi- 

 tants of a warm country, for we know that the unclothed 

 Fuegians can exist under a wretched climate. When we 

 compare the defenceless state of man with that of apes, 

 we must remember that the great canine teeth with which 

 the latter are provided are possessed in their full develop- 

 ment by the males alone, and are chiefly used by them for 

 fighting with their rivals; yet the females, which are not 

 thus provided, manage to survive. 



In regard to bodily size or strength, we do not know 

 whether man is descended from some small species, like 

 the chimpanzee, or from one as powerful as the gorilla; 

 and, therefore, we cannot say whether man has become 

 larger and stronger, or smaller and weaker, than his ances- 

 tors. We should, however, bear in mind that an animal 

 possessing great size, strength, and ferocity, and which, 

 like the gorilla, could defend itself from all enemies, would 

 not perhaps have become social ; and this would most efliect- 

 ually have checked the acquirement of the higher mental 

 qualities, such as sympathy and the love of his fellows. 

 Hence it might have been an immense advantage to man 

 to have sprung from some comparatively weak creature. 



The small strength and speed of man, his want of natural 

 weapons, etc., are more than counterbalanced: first, by his 

 intellectual powers, through which he has formed for him- 

 self weapons, tools, etc. , though still remaining in a barba- 

 rous state; and, secondly, by his social qualities, which lead 

 him to give and receive aid from his fellow-men. No coun- 

 try in the world abounds in a greater degree with dangerous 

 beasts than Southern Africa ; no country presents more fear- 

 ful physical hardships than the Arctic regions; yet one of 

 the puniest of races, that of the Bushmen, maintains itself 

 in Southern Africa, as do the dwarfed Eskimos in the 



