172 
THE DESCENT OF MAN. 
Part L 
Great lawgivers, the founders of beneficent religions, 
great philosophers and discoverers in science, aid the 
progress of mankind in a far higher degree by their 
works than by leaving a numerous progeny. In the 
case of corporeal structures, it is the selection of 
the slightly better-endowed and the elimination of the 
slightly less well-endowed individuals, and not the pre- 
servation of strongly-marked and rare anomalies, that 
leads to the advancement of a species. 15 So it will be 
with the intellectual faculties, namely from the some- 
what more able men in each grade of society succeeding 
rather better than the less able, and consequently in- 
creasing in number, if not otherwise prevented. When 
in any nation the standard of intellect and the number 
of intellectual men have increased, we may expect from 
the law of the deviation from an average, as shewn by 
Mr. Galton, that prodigies of genius will appear some- 
what more frequently than before. 
In regard to the moral qualities, some elimination of 
the worst dispositions is always in progress even in the 
most civilised nations. Malefactors are executed, or 
imprisoned for long periods, so that they cannot freely 
transmit their bad qualities. Melancholic and insane 
persons are confined, or commit suicide. Violent and 
quarrelsome men often come to a bloody end. Restless 
men who will not follow any steady occupation — and 
this relic of barbarism is a great check to civilisation 16 — 
emigrate to newly-settled countries, where they prove 
useful pioneers. Intemperance is so highly destructive, 
that the expectation of life of the intemperate, at the 
age, for instance, of thirty, is only 13*8 years ; whilst for 
the rural labourers of England at the same age it is 
15 ‘ Origin of Species’ (fifth edition, 1869), p. 104. 
1(5 ‘Hereditary Genius/ 1870, p. 347. 
