232 
THE DESCENT OF MAN. 
Part I. 
into consideration they are found to resemble each 
other closely in a multitude of points. Many of these 
points are of so unimportant or of so singular a nature, 
that it is extremely improbable that they should have 
been independently acquired by aboriginally distinct 
species or races. The same remark holds good with 
equal or greater force with respect to the numerous 
points of mental similarity between the most distinct 
races of man. The American aborigines, Negroes and 
Europeans differ as much from each other in mind as any 
three races that can be named ; yet I was incessantly 
struck, whilst living with the Fuegians on board the 
‘‘Beagle, 7 ’ with the many little traits of character, 
shewing how similar their minds were to ours ; and so 
it was with a full-blooded negro with whom I happened 
once to be intimate. 
He who will carefully read Mr. Tylor’s and Sir 
J. Lubbock’s interesting works 23 can hardly fail to be 
deeply impressed with the close similarity between 
the men of all races in tastes, dispositions and habits. 
This is shewn by the pleasure which they all take in 
dancing, rude music, acting, painting, tattooing, and 
otherwise decorating themselves, — in their mutual 
comprehension of gesture-language — and, as I shall be 
able to shew in a future essay, by the same expression 
in their features, and by the same inarticulate cries, 
when they are excited by various emotions. This 
similarity, or rather identity, is striking, when contrasted 
with the different expressions which may be observed 
in distinct species of monkeys. There is good evi- 
dence that the art of shooting with bows and arrows has 
not been handed down from any common progenitor of 
23 Tylor’s ‘ Early History of Mankind,’ 1865; for the evidence with 
respect to gesture-language, see p. 54. Lubbock’s * Prehistoric Times,’ 
2nd edit. 1869. 
