182 
NATURAL SELECTION 
VIII 
compete with the deer in swiftness, or with the wild bull in 
strength, this gave him weapons with which to capture or 
overcome both. Though less capable than most other animals 
of living on the herbs and the fruits that unaided nature sup- 
plies, this wonderful faculty taught him to govern and direct 
nature to his own benefit, and make her produce food for him, 
when and where he pleased. From the moment when the 
first skin was used as a covering, when the first rude spear 
was formed to assist in the chase, when fire was first used to 
cook his food, when the first seed was sown or shoot planted, 
a grand revolution was effected in nature — a revolution which 
in all the previous ages of the earth’s history had had no 
parallel, for a being had arisen who was no longer necessarily 
subject to change with the changing universe — a being who 
was in some degree superior to nature, inasmuch as he knew 
how to control and regulate her action, and could keep him- 
self in harmony with her, not by a change in body, but by an 
advance of mind. 
Here, then, we see the true grandeur and dignity of man. 
On this view of his special attributes, we may admit that 
even those who claim for him a position as an order, a class, 
or a sub-kingdom by himself, have some show of reason on 
their side. He is, indeed, a being apart, since he is not in- 
fluenced by the great laws which irresistibly modify all other 
organic beings. Nay more : this victory which he has gained 
for himself, gives him a directing influence over other exist- 
ences. Man has not only escaped natural selection him- 
self, but he is actually able to take away some of that power 
from nature which before his appearance she universally 
exercised. We can anticipate the time when the earth will 
produce only cultivated plants and domestic animals ; when 
man’s selection shall have supplanted natural selection; 
and when the ocean will be the only domain in which that 
power can be exerted, which for countless cycles of ages has 
ruled supreme over all the earth. 
Their Bearing on the future Development of Man 
We now find ourselves enabled to answer those who main- 
tain that if Mr. Darwin’s theory of the Origin of Species is 
true, man too must change in form, and become developed 
