154 DARWINISM STATED BY DARWIN HIMSELF. 



character than do the members of barbarous nations. 

 But the uniformity of savages has often been exaggerat- 

 ed, and in some cases can hardly be said to exist. It is, 

 nevertheless, an error to speak of man, even if we look 

 only to the conditions to which he has been exposed, as 

 "far more domesticated" than any other animal. Some 

 savage races, such as the Australians, are not exposed to 

 more diversified conditions than are many species which 

 have a wide range. In another and much more impor- 

 tant respect, man differs widely from any strictly domes- 

 ticated animal ; for his breeding has never long been con- 

 trolled, either by methodical or unconscious selection. 

 No race or body of men has been so completely subjugat- 

 ed by other men as that certain individuals should be 

 preserved, and thus unconsciously selected, from some- 

 how excelling in utility to their masters. Nor have cer- 

 tain male and female individuals been intentionally picked 

 out and matched, except in the well-known case of the 

 Prussian grenadiers ; and in this case man obeyed, as 

 might have been expected, the law of methodical selec- 

 tion ; for it is asserted that many tall men were reared 

 in the villages inhabited by the grenadiers and their tall 

 wives. In Sparta, also, a form of selection was followed, 

 for it was enacted that all children should be examined 

 shortly after birth ; the well-formed and vigorous being 

 preserved, the others left to perish. 



If we consider all the races of man as forming a single 

 species, his range is enormous ; but some separate races, 

 as the Americans and Polynesians, have very wide ranges. 

 It is a well-known law that widely-ranging species are 

 much more variable than species with restricted ranges ; 

 and the variability of man may with more truth be com- 

 pared with that of widely-ranging species than with that 

 of domesticated animals. 



