472 DARWINISM 



not, therefore, possibly have been developed in him by means 

 of the law of natural selection. 



We have thus shown, by two distinct lines of argument, 

 that faculties are developed in civilised man which, both in 

 their mode of origin, their function, and their variations, are al- 

 together distinct from those other characters and faculties which 

 are essential to him, and which have been brought to their 

 actual state of efficiency by the necessities of his existence. 

 And besides the three which have been specially referred to, 

 there are others which evidently belong to the same class. 

 Such is the metaphysical faculty, which enables us to form 

 abstract conceptions of a kind the most remote from all 

 practical applications, to discuss the ultimate causes of things, 

 the nature and qualities of matter, motion, and force, of space 

 and time, of cause and effect, of will and conscience. Specu- 

 lations on these abstract and difficult questions are impossible 

 to savages, who seem to have no mental faculty enabling them 

 to grasp the essential ideas or conceptions ; yet whenever any 

 race attains to civilisation, and comprises a body of people who, 

 whether as priests or philosophers, are relieved from the 

 necessity of labour or of taking an active part in war or 

 government, the metaphysical faculty appears to spring sud- 

 denly into existence, although, like the other faculties we have 

 referred to, it is always confined to a very limited proportion 

 of the population. 



In the same class we may place the peculiar faculty of wit 

 and humour, an altogether natural gift whose development 

 appears to be parallel with that of the other exceptional 

 faculties. Like them, it is almost unknown among savages, 

 but appears more or less frequently as civilisation advances and 

 the interests of life become more numerous and more complex. 

 Like them, too, it is altogether removed from utility in the 

 struggle for life, and appears sporadically in a very small per- 

 centage of the population; the majority being, as is well 

 known, totally unable to say a witty thing or make a pun 

 even to save their lives. 1 



1 In the latter part of his essay on Heredity (pp. 91-93 of the volume of 

 Essays), Dr. Weismann refers to this question of the origin of "talents" in 

 man, and, like myself, comes to the conclusion that they could not be developed 



