234 TEE DESCENT OF MAN 



characteristics of true species, but which hardly deserve so 

 high a rank. Now if we reflect on the weighty arguments 

 above given, for raising the races of man to the dignity of 

 species, and the insuperable difficulties on the other side 

 in defining them, it seems that the term "sub-species" might 

 here be used with propriety. But from long habit the term 

 "race" will perhaps always be employed. The choice of 

 terms is only sb far important in that it is desirable to use, 

 as far as~ possible, the same terms for the same degrees of 

 difference. Unfortunately this can rarely be done: for the 

 larger genera generally include closely allied forms, which 

 can be distinguished only with much difficulty, while the 

 smaller genera within the same family include forms that 

 are perfectly distinct; yet all must be ranked equally as 

 species. So again, species within the same large genus by 

 no means resemble each other to the same degree; on the 

 contrary, some of them can generally be arranged in little 

 groups round other species, like satellites' round planets." 



The question whether mankind consists of one or several 

 species has of late years been much discussed by anthropolo- 

 gists, who are divided into the two schools of mon ogenists 

 and polygenists. Those who do not admit the principle of 

 evolution must look at species as separate creations, or as 

 in some manner as distinct entities; and they must decide 

 what forms of man they will consider as species by the 

 analogy of the method commonly pursued in ranking other 

 organic beings as species. But it is a hopeless endeavor to 

 decide this point, until some definition of the term "species" 

 is generally accepted; and the definition must not include 

 an indeterminate element such as an act of creation. We 

 might as well attempt without any definition to decide 

 whether a certain number of houses should be called a 

 village, town, or city. "We have a practical illustration 

 of the difficulty in the never-ending doubts whether many 

 closely allied mammals, birds, insects, and plants, which 



9» "Origin of Speciea," 5th edit., p. 68. 



