I20 LUCK, OR CUNNING? 



multitudinous in powers as mankind ; and above all 

 does it seem to be so with such of the hum-an powers 

 as have but minor shares in aiding the struggle for 

 life — the sesthetic faculties, for example. 



" Dwelling for a moment on this last illustration of 

 the class of difficulties described, let us ask how we 

 are to interpret the development of the musical faculty ; 

 .... how came there that endowment of musical 

 faculty which characterises modern Europeans at large,- 

 as compared with their remote ancestors ? The mono- 

 tonous chants of low savages cannot be said to show 

 any melodic inspiration; and it is not evident that an 

 individual savage who had a little more musical per- 

 ception than the rest would derive any such advantage 

 in the maintenance of life as would secure the spread 

 of his superiority by inheritance of the variation," &c. 



It should be observed that the passage given in the 

 last paragraph but one appeared in 1864, only five 

 years after the first edition of the " Origin of Species," 

 but, crushing as it is, Mr. Darwin never answered it. 

 He treated it as non-existent — and this, doubtless from 

 a business standpoint, was the best thing he could do. 

 How far such a course was consistent with that single- 

 hearted devotion to the interests of science for which 

 Mr. Darwin developed such an abnormal reputation, is 

 a point which I must leave to his many admirers to 

 determine. 



