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diff --git a/28471-h/28471-h.htm b/28471-h/28471-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d90e29c --- /dev/null +++ b/28471-h/28471-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,6186 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Man And His Ancestor, by Charles Morris. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +.fm2 {font-size: 125%; + text-align: center; + font-weight: bold; +} + +.fm3 {font-size: 100%; + text-align: center; + font-weight: bold; +} + +.fm4 {font-size: 90%; + text-align: center; + font-weight: bold; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + +table {margin: auto; text-align: center; width: 35em;} +td.tdl {text-align: left; padding-right: .5em;} +td.tdr {text-align: right; padding-left: .5em;} +td.tdc {text-align: center} +td.page {font-size: 90%;} + +.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; +} /* page numbers */ + + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.transnote { background-color: #ADD8E6; color: inherit; margin: 2em 10% 1em 10%; font-size: 80%; padding: 0.5em 1em 0.5em 1em;} +.transnote p { text-align: left;} +a.correction {text-decoration: none; border-bottom: thin dotted red; color: inherit; background-color: inherit;} +a.correction:hover {text-decoration: none;} + +/* Footnotes */ +.footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + +.footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + +.footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + +.fnanchor { + vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: + none; +} + +.lig { letter-spacing: -0.15em; } + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Man And His Ancestor, by Charles Morris + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Man And His Ancestor + A Study In Evolution + +Author: Charles Morris + +Release Date: April 2, 2009 [EBook #28471] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MAN AND HIS ANCESTOR *** + + + + +Produced by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Carla Foust, and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="transnote"> +<h3>Transcriber's note</h3> +<p>Printer +errors have been changed, and they are indicated with +a <a class="correction" title="like this" href="#tnotes">mouse-hover</a> +and listed at the +<a href="#tnotes">end of this book</a>. All other +inconsistencies are as in the original. +</p> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h1>MAN AND HIS ANCESTOR</h1> + +<p class="fm2"><i>A STUDY IN EVOLUTION</i></p> + +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<p class="fm3">BY</p> + +<p class="fm2">CHARLES MORRIS</p> + +<p class="fm4">AUTHOR OF "CIVILIZATION: AN HISTORICAL REVIEW<br /> +OF ITS ELEMENTS," "THE ARYAN RACE," ETC.</p> + +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<p class="fm3">New York</p> + +<p class="fm2">THE MACMILLAN COMPANY</p> + +<p class="fm3">LONDON: MACMILLAN AND CO., <span class="smcap">Ltd.</span></p> + +<p class="fm2">1900</p> + +<p class="fm4"><i>All rights reserved</i></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="fm4"><span class="smcap">Copyright</span>, 1900,</p> +<p class="fm3"><span class="smcap">By</span> THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.</p> + +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<p class="fm4">Norwood Press<br /> +J. S. Cushing & Co.—Berwick & Smith<br /> +Norwood Mass. U.S.A.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[v]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE"></a>PREFACE</h2> + + +<p>It would be difficult to find any intelligent person in this age of the +world who has not some theory or opinion in regard to the origin of man, +and perhaps almost as difficult to find any such person who can give a +good and sufficient reason for the faith that is in him. This is +especially the case with those who look upon man as a product of +evolution, a natural outgrowth from the world of lower life, since here +simple faith or ancient authority is not sufficient, as in the creation +hypothesis, but scientific evidence and logical argument are necessary. +It is to enable this class of readers to test the quality and +sufficiency of their belief that this book has been prepared.</p> + +<p>The question of the evolutionary origin of man has been by no means +neglected by recent authors, yet it has been dealt with chiefly as a +side issue in works of a more extended purpose, and largely in technical +language, simple to the scientist, but difficult to the general reader. +The only work that makes this subject its leading theme, Darwin's +"Descent of Man," adds to it a still longer treatise on "Sexual +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[vi]</a></span>Selection," so that the subject of man's evolutionary origin cannot be +said to have been yet dealt with for itself alone. Darwin's work, +moreover, is now nearly thirty years old, and to this extent antiquated, +while at best it cannot be considered as well suited for general +reading.</p> + +<p>These considerations have given rise to the present work, in which an +effort has been made to present the subject of man's origin in a popular +manner, to dwell on the various significant facts that have been +discovered since Darwin's time, and to offer certain lines of evidence +never before presented in this connection, and which seem to add much +strength to the general argument.</p> + +<p>The subject is one of such widespread interest as to make it probable +that a plain and brief presentation of it will be acceptable, both to +enable those who are evolutionists in principle to learn on what grounds +their acceptance of this phase of evolution stands, and to aid those who +are at sea on the whole subject of man's origin to reach some fixed +conclusion. For these purposes this little book has been set afloat, +with the hope that it may carry some doubters to solid land and teach +some believers the fundamental elements of their faith.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[vii]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS</h2> + +<table summary="CONTENTS"> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">CHAPTER</td> +<td class="tdl"> </td> +<td class="tdr page" colspan="2">PAGE</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">I.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Evolution versus Creation</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">II.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Vestiges of Man's Ancestry</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_5">5</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">III.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Relics of Ancient Man</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_21">21</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">IV.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">From Quadruped to Biped</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_39">39</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">V.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Freedom of the Arms</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_54">54</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">VI.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Development of Intelligence</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_68">68</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">VII.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Origin of Language</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_100">100</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">VIII.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">How the Chasm was bridged</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_111">111</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">IX.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The First Stage of Human Evolution</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_130">130</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">X.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Conflict with Nature</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_158">158</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XI.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Warfare and Civilization</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_195">195</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XII.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Evolution of Morality</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_206">206</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XIII.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Man's Relation to the Spiritual</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_225">225</a></td> +</tr> +</table> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[viii]</a></span></p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="MAN_AND_HIS_ANCESTOR" id="MAN_AND_HIS_ANCESTOR"></a>MAN AND HIS ANCESTOR</h2> + +<h2>I</h2> + +<h3>EVOLUTION VERSUS CREATION</h3> + + +<p>In any consideration of the origin of man we are necessarily restricted +to two views: one, that he is the outcome of a development from the +lower animals; the other, that he came into existence through direct +creation. No third mode of origin can be conceived, and we may safely +confine ourselves to a review of these two claims. They are the +opposites of each other in every particular. The creation doctrine is as +old almost as thinking man; the evolutionary doctrine belongs in effect +to our own generation. The former is not open to evidence; the latter +depends solely upon evidence. The former is based on authority; the +latter on investigation. The doctrine of direct creation can merely be +asserted, it cannot be argued; the statement once made, there is nothing +more to be said; it is an <i>ipse dixit</i> pure and simple. The doctrine of +evolution, on the contrary, founded as it must be on ascertained facts, +is fully open to argument, and depends for its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span> acceptance on the +strength and validity of the evidence in its favor.</p> + +<p>If the doctrine of the direct creation of man had been originally +presented in our own day, proof of the assertion would have been at once +demanded, and the only evidence admissible would have been that of +witnesses of the act of creation. There could, of course, have been no +human witnesses, as there would have been no preceding human beings, and +witnesses not human have, in the present day, no standing in our courts. +As the case stands, however, the doctrine arose in an age when man did +not trouble himself about evidence, but was content to accept his +opinions on authority; and this, strangely enough, is held by many to be +a strong point in its favor, it gaining, in their minds, authenticity +from antiquity. It is claimed, indeed, to be sustained by divine +authority, but this is a claim that has no warrant in the words of the +statement itself, and one to which no form of words could give warrant. +To establish it, direct and incontestable evidence from the creative +power itself would be necessary, and it need scarcely be said that no +such evidence exists. It is not easy, indeed, to conceive what form such +evidence could take. It would certainly need to be something far more +convincing than a statement in a book.</p> + +<p>It might have been better for civilized mankind if the opening pages of +Genesis had never been written, since they have played a potent part in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span> +checking the development of thought. As the case now stands, the +cosmological doctrines they contain can no longer claim even a shadow of +divine authority, since they have been distinctly traced back to a human +origin. It has been recently discovered that they are simply a +restatement of the Babylonian cosmology, as given in a literary +production ages older than the Bible, an epic poem of very remote date. +They are, doubtless, an outgrowth of the cosmological ideas of early +man, and those who accept them must do so on the basis of belief in +their probability; it is no longer permissible to claim for them the +warrant of divine origin.</p> + +<p>Modern science stringently demands facts in support of any assertion, +the word "faith" having no place in its lexicon. Facts are absolutely +and necessarily wanting in support of the creation doctrine, and the +only argument its advocates can advance is one that deals in negatives, +and demands its acceptance on the ground that the opposite doctrine has +not been proved. Such an argument is valueless. Disproof of one +statement is never proof of another. Its effect is simply to leave both +unproved, and neither, therefore, in condition for acceptance. In the +present case the weight of disproof is small. The facts in support of +the evolution hypothesis are multitudinous, and many of them of great +cogency; the facts against it are few, and none of them absolute. It is +simply<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span> argued that some questions remain unsolved, and that there are +facts which seem inconsistent with the Darwinian theory of development, +and which no supplementary hypotheses have explained. But no advocates +of evolution hold that the Darwinian theory is final. Evolution is a +growing doctrine. It has been expanding ever since it was first +promulgated. Various seeming difficulties have been explained away, and +it is quite possible that all may disappear as investigation widens. No +such arguments add any weight to the opposite view, which has not and +never could have any standing in science, since it is impossible to +adduce any facts to sustain it. We shall therefore dismiss it from +further consideration, and proceed to state certain general facts in +favor of the evolutionary hypothesis of the origin of man.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span></p> + + +<h2><a name="II" id="II"></a>II</h2> + +<h3>VESTIGES OF MAN'S ANCESTRY</h3> + + +<p>When, some centuries ago, men began to find fossil remains of animals in +the rocks, a severe shock was given to the prevailing doctrine of the +recent creation of the earth. The adherents of the old theology made +strenuous efforts to explain away this unwelcome circumstance. The +shells found had been dropped by pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem; +they were mineral simulations of shells; they had been created by the +Deity and placed where found; they were anything but what they appeared +to be, the existing evidences of a long ancient period of animal life +reaching back very far beyond the assumed date of creation.</p> + +<p>It need scarcely be said that these explanations, especially the one +that God had created fossil forms to deceive man, for some +incomprehensible purpose, could not long be maintained. Some of them +were inconsistent with the facts, others with common sense, and in due +time it was everywhere admitted that the earth is of remote duration and +has been inhabited by animals and plants for untold ages. Its structure +revealed its history; its annals were found to be written in the rocks; +its anatomy was full of the evidences of its origin.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span>When, not many years ago, men began to find the fossil remains of +ancient structures in the body of man himself, theology was brought face +to face with a problem as difficult to explain, from its special point +of view, as that of the fossils in the rocks. As the latter had +threatened and finally disproved the doctrine of the special creation of +the earth, so the former assailed the doctrine of the special creation +of man, and annihilated it in the minds of many eminent scientists. It +formed a prominent argument in favor of the theory of organic evolution, +and as such calls for consideration here, as a suitable groundwork for +our special theme.</p> + +<p>The structures referred to may justly be called fossil, since they +present strong evidence of being the useless remains of structures which +played an active part in the bodies of some former animals. A +significant example of this exists in the vermiform appendix, a narrow, +blind tube descending from the cæcum of man, and detrimental instead of +useful, since it is the seat of the frequently fatal disease known as +appendicitis. This tube, usually from three to six inches long and of +the thickness of a goose quill, is occasionally absent in man, +occasionally of considerable size. It is quite large, as compared with +the other intestines, in the human embryo, but ceases to grow after a +certain stage of development. The cæcum is extremely long in some of the +lower vegetable-eating animals, and the vermiform appendix seems to be a +rudiment of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span> formerly extended portion of this organ. It is large in +the anthropoid apes, especially in the orang, in which it is very long +and spirally convoluted. Its survival in man as a useless and dangerous +aborted organ is a powerful argument in favor of his descent from the +lower animals.</p> + +<p>In the brain of man and many of the lower vertebrates, hanging by two +peduncles, or strands of nerve fibre, from the thalami, or beds of the +optic nerve, is a small rounded or heart-shaped body of about the size +of a pea, known as the pineal gland. It is so destitute of any evident +function that Descartes, in lack of any more probable explanation of its +presence, ascribed to it the noble duty of serving as the seat of the +soul. Late research has been more successful in tracking this organ to +its lair. It is larger in the embryo than in the adult man, still larger +in some lower vertebrates, and in certain lizards has been found to +exist as an eye, its parts plainly distinguishable under the microscope. +It is placed in the middle of the forehead, between the other eyes, and +was no doubt an active organ of vision in some ancient batrachians.</p> + +<p>The pineal eye, as it is now named, once useful, long useless, has +persisted as a fossil structure through a far extended line of +development. No more convincing evidence that man gained his body +through descent from the lower animals could be asked for than the +survival in the human<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> brain of this wonderfully significant remnant of +a formerly useful organ. Like various other vestiges of ancient organs, +it is not only useless but detrimental. It occasionally enlarges and +becomes the seat of large and complicated tumors, which may cause death +by their compression of the brain.</p> + +<p>Two other structures common to most of the vertebrate animals exist in +man, though they render him little or no service. These are the thymus +and thyroid glands, apparently vestigial structures. The thymus gland +attains a considerable development in the embryo and shrinks away to the +merest vestige in the adult. It begins to form early in the embryo life +as an epithelial ingrowth from the throat, and extends from the neck +into the chest. It continues to grow after birth, but later begins to +shrink and nearly disappears in the adult.</p> + +<p>The thyroid gland has a somewhat similar origin, it beginning as an +ingrowth from the lower section of the pharynx and extending down to the +lower part of the neck. It subsequently loses its connection with the +pharynx, and in adult life is a bilobed structure on either side of the +windpipe. Like the thymus it is a ductless gland, abundantly supplied +with blood-vessels, and possesses a vast number of small cavities, lined +with cells and containing an insoluble jelly. So far as appears, both +these glands are useless, or nearly so, to man; or if the thyroid +performs any useful service it is a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span> minor and obscure one. Such +functions as it may have could probably be performed by some of the +other organs, while it is positively detrimental as the seat of goitre. +This unsightly disease is due to its enlargement, either by a great +increase of its blood-vessels or a development of the capsules and +increase of their contained jelly. Dr. S. V. Clevenger considers these +organs to have had a branchial or respiratory origin, saying that there +are many reasons for believing them to be rudimentary gills. Owen says +that the thymus appears in vertebrates with the establishment of the +lung as the main or exclusive respiratory organ. It is wanting in all +fishes, also in the gill-bearing batrachians, siren and proteus. The +thyroid appears in fishes, and Gegenbaur believes that it may have been +a useful organ to the Tunicata in their former state of existence.</p> + +<p>Dr. Clevenger, in the <i>American Naturalist</i> for January, 1884, points +out another curious structure in man, whose significance does not seem +to have been previously observed. This is a strange and striking fact +relating to the formation of the veins. It is well known that these +organs possess valves, which permit the free upward flow of the blood +toward the heart, but resist its descent through the action of gravity, +in this way aiding its return from the extremities. The rule holds good +throughout the quadrupeds that the vertical veins possess valves, while +they are absent from the horizontal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span> veins, in which they would be of no +utility. But the singular fact exists that in the human trunk the valves +occur in the horizontal and are absent from the vertical veins. In other +words, they exist where they are useless for their apparent purpose and +are absent where they would be useful.</p> + +<p>The only conclusion that can reasonably be drawn from this strange fact +is that we are here dealing with a fossilized structure, a functionless +survival. It leads irresistibly to the inference that man has descended +from a quadruped ancestor, and that when his body took the upright +position the structure of the veins, not being seriously detrimental, +remained unchanged. Those which had been vertical became horizontal, and +retained their now useless valves; those which had been horizontal +became vertical, and remained destitute of valves. The veins of the arms +and legs, vertical in both forms, retained their valves.</p> + +<p>Dr. Clevenger points out that the intercostal veins, which carry blood +almost horizontally backward to the azygos veins and which would run +vertically upward in quadrupeds, possess valves. These are not only +useless to man, but when he lies upon his back they are an actual +hindrance to the free flow of the blood. In like manner, the inferior +thyroid veins, whose blood flows into the innominate, are obstructed by +valves at the point of junction.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span>We quote from him as follows: "There are two pairs of valves in the +external jugular and one pair in the internal jugular, but in +recognition of their uselessness they do not prevent regurgitation of +blood nor liquids from passing upward. An apparent anomaly exists in the +absence of valves from parts where they are most needed, as in the venæ +cavæ, spinal, iliac, hæmorrhoidal, and portal. The azygos veins have +imperfect valves. Place men upon 'all fours' and the law governing the +presence and absence of valves is at once apparent, applicable, so far +as I have been able to ascertain, to all quadrupedal and quadrumanous +animals: <i>Dorsal veins are valved; cephalad, ventrad, and caudad veins +have no valves.</i>"</p> + +<p>Of the few exceptions to this rule, he considers the valves of the +jugular veins as in process of becoming obsolete, and the rudimentary +azygos valves as a recent development. Valves in the hæmorrhoidal veins +would be out of place in quadrupeds, but their absence in man is a +serious defect in his organization, since the resulting engorgement of +blood gives rise to the distressing disease known as piles. The presence +of valves would obviate this.</p> + +<p>No one can argue that this useless and, to some extent, injurious +condition is a designed result of creation. There could not, indeed, be +stronger evidence that man has descended from a quadruped ancestor. Dr. +Clevenger points out other serious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> results of the upright position of +the body, from which quadrupeds are free. One of these is the liability +to inguinal hernia, or rupture, which leads to much suffering and +frequent death in man. Prolapsis uteri is another, and a third to which +he particularly alludes is difficulty in parturition.</p> + +<p>It has been suggested above that the thyroid gland may possibly be of +some minor functional importance, and that the thymus is developed in +the embryo sufficiently to be functional. As regards the latter, no one +is likely to maintain that an act of direct creation would include the +production of an organ of some slight and obscure utility to the embryo +and useless in later life. The strong probability is that this gland +belongs in the same category with other embryonic survivals yet to be +pointed out. As regards the seeming function of the thyroid, it may be +said that the surviving relic of an ancient functional organ is quite +capable of varying in structure and taking upon itself a new function, +of minor value, which in its absence would be left undone or be +performed by some of the other organs.</p> + +<p>A highly interesting example of this exists in the swim-bladder of the +fish, which there is good reason to believe is a survival of an ancient +structure used for quite a different purpose. It was originally +developed, in the opinion of the writer,<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span>as an air-breathing organ, +in a very ancient semi-amphibious class of fishes, from which the +existing bony fishes have descended. When the latter resumed the +gill-breathing habit, this organ lost its original function, and its +subsequent history is a curious and significant one. In some modern +fishes it has quite disappeared. In others it exists as a minute and +useless remnant, no larger than a pea. In many it has been converted +into the swim-bladder, and in this form serves a useful purpose, but +varies very greatly in shape and size. Finally, in a few instances, it +retains some measure of its probably original function of air-breathing. +It is a fact of much significance, that those fishes without a +swim-bladder do not seem to be at any disadvantage from its absence, but +are able to make their way vertically through the water quite as well as +those which possess this organ. The presumption, therefore, is that it +is of little utility to the fish, and that its employment for this +purpose is a mere resultant of its survival and character. Such an organ +could never have been evolved as an aid in swimming, since its shrinkage +to a useless rudiment in some cases and its complete extinction in +others show that this function is in no sense a necessary one. It is +there and has lost its old use, and is, in some cases, adapted to +another purpose; that is all that can be said.</p> + +<p>Man is the one hairless mammal,—or hairless<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> except on a few parts of +his body. Yet the whole body is covered with a thin growth of hair, +useless for any purpose of protection, and only explainable as a +survival from the mammalian covering. The occasional considerable +development of the hair is an indication pointing to such an origin. +This applies not only to individuals, but to tribes or races, as in the +instances of the Ainos of Japan and some of the Pygmies of Africa. The +disappearance of the hair in man has been traced to no well established +cause. Darwin's view that it may have been a result of sexual selection +seems the most probable explanation. Certainly this is the case with the +beard, whose absence in women shows it to be of no utility, and whose +presence in man is in accord with the many structures in male animals +apparently due to this form of selection.</p> + +<p>Darwin has pointed out and explained a very curious peculiarity of the +hair in man, which is absolutely inexplicable except on the theory of +descent. This is the fact that the hairs on man's arms are directed +toward the elbow from above and below, thus growing in opposite +directions on the upper and lower arms. The same peculiarity exists in +the larger anthropoid apes and in some of the gibbons, but is not found +in the lower mammals. In the apes it is believed to be due to the habit +of protecting the head from rain by covering it with the hands, the +hairs turning so that the rain can run downward freely in both +directions toward<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> the bent elbow. This is so useless in man that it can +be explained only as a survival.</p> + +<p>There are some other survivals in man of ancient structures to which a +passing allusion must suffice. In man's eye is a minute membrane, the +semilunar fold, which is absolutely useless in his economy. There is +every reason to believe that this is the rudiment of a membrane which is +fully developed in many animals, and is especially useful to birds, the +nictitating membrane, or third eyelid. Again, the muscles which move the +skin in many animals, especially in horses, have left inactive remnants +in many parts of the human body. These are normally active only in the +forehead, where they serve to lift the eyebrows, but they occasionally +become active elsewhere. Thus there are some persons who can move the +skin of the scalp. Darwin cites some who could throw heavy books from +the head in this manner. The same may be said of the rudimentary muscles +of the ear. There are persons who can move their ears in the same way as +is done by the lower animals. Again, the whole external ear may be +looked upon as a rudimentary structure, since it does not appear to aid +the hearing in man. As regards the pointed ear of man's probable +ancestor, Darwin calls attention to what seems a trace in man of the +lost tip.</p> + +<p>Carrying this consideration farther, it may be asked, Of what use are +the five toes to man? Would not a solid foot have answered the purpose<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span> +of walking quite as well? But as survivals their presence is fully +accounted for, since they are indispensable to many of the lower +animals. Question may also be made of the utility of the large number of +bones in the wrist and heel of man. Equal flexibility of the joint could +certainly have been obtained with a smaller number of bones. It is only +when these are traced back to their probable origin in the walking +organs of the fish ancestor of the batrachians that their presence +becomes explainable. They are apparently survivals of a very ancient +structure, originated for swimming, and adapted to walking.</p> + +<p>As regards the wrist of man, a curious prediction that a certain bone +found in some of the lower animals, the <i>os centrale</i>, would be found in +man has been made and verified, it being discovered as a very small +rudiment in the human embryo. The tail, so common a feature in the lower +animals, but absent from the higher apes and from man, has not vanished +without leaving its traces. In the human embryo it is plainly indicated; +and while it vanishes in man beyond the embryo stage, it is simply +hidden beneath the skin, where its vertebrae are still apparent, usually +three, sometimes four or five, in number. In addition to this, the +muscles which move the tail have left traces of their presence, which +not infrequently develop into true muscles.</p> + +<p>In the human embryo, indeed, we find ourselves<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span> in the midst of highly +significant indications of man's origin. The body of man passes in its +early development through a series of stages, in each of which it +resembles the mature or the embryo state of certain animals lower in the +stage of existence. It begins its existence as a simple cell, analogous +in form to the amoeba, one of the lowest living creatures, and later +assumes the gastrula form supposed to have been that of the earliest +many-celled animals. From this state it progresses by successive stages, +each of which has some relation in form to a lower class.</p> + +<p>The most significant of these is that in which the embryo is closely +assimilated to the fish, by the possession of gill slits. There are four +of these openings in the neck of the human f<span class="lig">oe</span>tus, and they are at times +so persistent that children have been born with them still open, so that +fluids taken in at the mouth could trickle out at the neck, the opening +being sufficient to admit a thin probe.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> These slits are utilized in +the developing embryo, one of them being devoted to an important duty, +that of conversion into the external and middle ear. Thus the opening +for hearing is an adaptation of what was once an opening for breathing. +Occasionally an ear-like outgrowth appears on the neck, indicative of +the attempt of a second slit to develop into an ear. The purpose of the +gill slits is made more apparent by the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> presence in the embryo of gill +arches of the blood-vessels, like those normal to the fish. These +disappear in common with the slits.</p> + +<p>The temporary appearance of these gill slits is the strongest evidence +that could well be demanded that the human embryo passes through the +various stages which the adult has assumed in its long development in +past time, and that one of these stages was the fish. And these form +only one of the evidences of man's origin to be found in the embryo. +Another which may be mentioned is the wool-like hair which covers the +f<span class="lig">oe</span>tus, and whose presence is incomprehensible except on the theory of +descent. Its most probable explanation is that it appears as a passing +survival of the first permanent coat of hair of the lower mammals.</p> + +<p>In the milk teeth of man we have another useless and often annoying +survival of an ancient state of the dental organs. We cannot well +imagine that in any direct creation a set of temporary teeth would have +been provided as preliminary to a permanent set—an utterly useless +provision. But when we find that in a lower stage of animal life the old +teeth are periodically succeeded by new ones, we can understand how a +trace of this condition has persisted in the mammalia.</p> + +<p>Other evidences of man's origin in the lower animals could be drawn from +the phenomena of atavism, or arrest of development in parts or organs of +the body. Atavism is usually confined<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> within the line of human descent, +conditions appearing in many of us which belonged to some of our human +ancestors a few generations, occasionally many generations, in the past. +But conditions now and then appear which are abnormal to man, but which +are normal to some of the lower animals. This tendency is exhibited by +all organisms. In an occasional horse the long-lost stripes of the +zebra-like ancestor reappear. Now and then a blue pigeon, like the +ancestral form, crops up in a pure breed of domesticated birds. Even in +the details of anatomy some long-vanished character suddenly appears.</p> + +<p>Many instances of this in man might be cited, embracing various features +of the muscular and other internal organs. The abnormality of club-foot +may be pointed to as a reversion to the shape of the foot in the +anthropoid apes. This, however, is a retention of a condition existing +in the f<span class="lig">oe</span>tus of man, the foot being drawn up and the sole turned inward +and upward. It is simply a passing testimony to the ancestral condition +of man.</p> + +<p>Again, we have the fact that man possesses normally only twelve ribs, +one less than is found in the gorilla and the chimpanzee. This leads to +the possibility that man may have lost a rib in his development, and in +significant evidence of this is the fact that occasionally a thirteenth +rib appears in the human framework.</p> + +<p>The functionless organs in men are, as above<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> said, closely analogous to +the fossils in the rocks, in that both point back to a period in which +they were active, vital forms occupying a definite place in the long +line of animal life or animal structure. The argument that God directly +created the fossils is no more absurd than the one that He directly +created these useless and at times detrimental organs. It is impossible +to offer a reason for such a futile exercise of creative power, unless +that it was intended to make it falsely appear that man arose from the +world of life below him. Will any one in this age assert that God placed +useless and dangerous structures in the body of man for the incredible +purpose of deceiving him in regard to his origin? And will it be further +asserted that the Deity placed similar stumbling-blocks to the human +reason in the embryo, in order to deceive those who should extend their +researches to this low level? It would be difficult to conceive of a +more preposterous idea, yet there is no other escape from what seems a +self-evident fact, that man is a product of evolution from the lower +animals, and bears the marks of his ancestry thick upon him.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> "On the Air Bladder of Fishes." Proceedings of the Academy +of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 1885.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Sutton, "Evolution and Disease."</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="III" id="III"></a>III</h2> + +<h3>RELICS OF ANCIENT MAN</h3> + + +<p>If now, instead of seeking for evidences of man's ancestry within the +human body, in survivals of ancient anatomical structures, we seek for +them within the crust of the earth, we find ourselves confronted with +evidences of a great antiquity of the human race, partly in implements +of human manufacture, partly in ancient or fossilized bones of primitive +man. These indicate not only great remoteness of origin, but also a very +gradual advance from the lowest stage of inventive ability to the high +level now attained.</p> + +<p>These relics of primitive man are divided by Dana into ten varieties, +(1) Buried human bones; (2) stone arrow and lance heads, hatchets, +pestles, etc.; (3) flint chips, left in the manufacture of implements; +(4) arrow heads and other implements made of bone and deer horn; (5) +bones, teeth, and shells bored or notched by human hands; (6) cut or +carved wood; (7) bone, horn, ivory, or stone graven with figures, or cut +into the shapes of animals; (8) marrow bones broken longitudinally to +obtain the marrow for food; (9) fragments of charcoal and other +indications of the use of fire; (10) fragments of pottery.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span>Relics of the kinds above cited have been found at intervals for many +years past, but their age and significance were doubted, and only within +some forty years has the great antiquity of man upon the earth been +generally acknowledged by scientists. The most important early find of +ancient implements was made by Boucher de Perthes in 1841 and +subsequently, in the high level gravels of the valley of the Somme, in +Picardy, France. In deep layers of these gravels, which were deposited +at a period when the river occupied a wider and higher channel than at +present, he found rude flint weapons and tools, bearing plain evidences +of human workmanship, and mingled with the teeth and bones of animals, +both of living and extinct species. Among the bones were those of the +mammoth and the hairy rhinoceros, species evidently contemporary with +man, though they have long since vanished from the earth. At a somewhat +earlier date, implements of men, mingled with bones of the cave-bear, +cave-lion, hyena, and other species, had been found in the caves of +France and Belgium. These were frequently buried beneath deposits of +stalagmite and other materials that must have taken a long time to +accumulate.</p> + +<p>The significance of these discoveries was long in forcing itself upon +the attention of scientific men. Nearly twenty years passed before +Boucher de Perthes could get the noted geologists of France and England +to investigate the Somme gravels.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> When they did so they were quickly +convinced of the genuine antiquity of these relics, and announced it as +a fact beyond question that man had lived in the Somme valley and +fashioned rude implements out of flint during what was known as the +Quaternary or Drift Period of geology.</p> + +<p>The discoveries here made set men actively at work investigating +elsewhere. Excavations were made in other high level gravels, caverns +were carefully and minutely examined, Kent's Cavern, England, was dug +out to its rock bottom, dozens of important finds resulted, and the +antiquity of man was proved to extend back from thousands to tens of +thousands, if not to hundreds of thousands, of years. And the +coexistence of man with the animals whose bones accompanied his relics +was proved by unquestionable evidence, for drawings and carved forms of +these animals were found, proving incontestably that man had gazed upon +their living forms. Thus the sketch of a mammoth, showing the long hair +which served to protect this animal from the cold, was found engraved +upon a piece of mammoth ivory, and one of a group of reindeer on a piece +of reindeer horn. There were also drawings of the cave-bear, the seal, +etc., and one very interesting group showing the aurochs, a number of +trees, and a man with a snake apparently biting his heel. The carvings +consisted of the horn handle of a dagger, cut into the shape of a +reindeer, and other forms.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span>That these relics belong to a far distant age is proved by the strongest +evidence. It must suffice here to give some of the more striking of +these proofs of antiquity. The flint hatchets found at St. Acheul, +France, were obtained from a gravel bed which lay below twelve feet of +sand and marl. On the surface was a layer of soil, in which were graves +of the Gallo-Roman period, showing that it had been there for at least +fifteen hundred years. The time needed for the slow accumulation of the +whole series of deposits must have been very considerable.</p> + +<p>A much more decisive proof of antiquity is given by the position in +which this and similar gravel beds lie. They are found along the sides +of rivers at a height often of a hundred or two hundred feet above the +flood level of the streams. When they were deposited, the rivers must +have run at this elevation, so that time has since elapsed sufficient +for the streams to cut down their valleys to the present depths. The +streams may have formerly been of greater volume, and had superior +cutting powers, and they may have been aided by the ice of the Glacial +Age, yet, however we estimate, the conclusion is inevitable that the men +who dropped their implements into those gravels must have lived upon the +earth ages before the beginning of historical times.</p> + +<p>The presence there of remains of animals which ages ago perished from +the earth is another cir<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span>cumstance indicative of high antiquity. These +embrace the mammoth,—the great hairy elephant of prehistoric times,—an +extinct hair-clad rhinoceros, the large and powerful cave-bear and +cave-lion, the great Irish elk, and still other animals of whose +existence we know only by their bones. Others, which existed in common +with men of later date, are the reindeer and the musk-ox, species of +which now inhabit the coldest regions of the north, and whose presence +in southern Europe at that era seems to indicate a much colder climate +than that of historic times.</p> + +<p>The evidences of human antiquity here briefly presented are accompanied +by indications of a gradual development of the human intellect. If man +has "fallen from his high estate," he has left no traces of this high +estate on his downward path. We possess abundant indications of his +upward climb, we find none of a preceding descent. If we base our +opinions on known facts, the theory of development is the only one that +can be sustained; the doctrine of a fall is absolutely without warrant +outside the pages of Genesis.</p> + +<p>The successive stages of man's mental development, as indicated in the +work of his hands, are well and clearly marked. At the lowest level we +find tools and weapons of the palæolithic or old stone age, made of +roughly chipped stone, rude in form, and never ground or polished. These +present some evidence of gradual improvement, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> we must go to a +higher level to find implements of a decidedly higher order, the neatly +shaped and polished stone implements of the neolithic or new stone age. +With the coming of these appears a much greater diversity in tools and +weapons, and evidences of a growing skill in manufacture and a +considerably greater power of invention. Still higher lie the deposits +of the bronze age, in which metal replaces stone in human implements. +Finally appears the age of iron, that in which we still remain. We need +merely refer in passing to the lake-dwellings of Switzerland, with their +many interesting relics of man during the later stone, the bronze, and +the early iron eras; and the kitchen-middens, or refuse-heaps, of the +Danish islands and elsewhere, which extend from the old stone age far +down toward the historic period.</p> + +<p>These are but a portion of the evidences of man's antiquity and his +gradual progress in the arts of manufacture. Others have been found in +many parts of the earth. Many of them exist in America, proving that man +resided on this continent at a very distant era. When we consider that +late discoveries in Babylonia appear to carry back the age of +civilization and historical relics to some ten thousand years, and that +semi-civilization must have extended very considerably beyond that time, +the vista of man's gradual progress seems to recede interminably and the +era of primitive man to stretch backward to an enormously remote<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> +period. In truth, discoveries have been made which are claimed to carry +man back beyond the Quaternary and into the Tertiary Period of geology, +since cut and scratched bones have been found in Pliocene deposits, +which some geologists of experience believe to have been the work of +human hands. Still more remote are some seemingly chipped flints and +bones cut in a way that suggests human action, which have been found in +deposits of the very far-distant Miocene Age. The immense remoteness of +this epoch and the rudeness of the work have cast much doubt on the +human origin of these remains, though their authenticity as the work of +man has been accepted by several competent observers, among them the +able anthropologist, Quatrefages.</p> + +<p>If we confine ourselves, however, to the conclusions regarding ancient +man which are generally accepted, we must say that he has not been +clearly traced back beyond the Glacial Period, though some of the relics +found in the older river gravels and in the lowest cave accumulations +may well be of pre-glacial age. Many geologists believe that he reached +Europe as early as the extinct mammals with which he was contemporaneous +there, but how far back in time this would carry his advent it is +impossible to say.</p> + +<p>Coming now to the consideration of more immediate human relics, the +bones of man himself, it must be said that well-authenticated remains +of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> palæolithic or early neolithic man are not numerous. As long as man +left his bones to the unaided agencies of nature, they were little +likely to be preserved. Of the anthropoid apes of Europe, probably +numerous in individuals, a few remains of one or two species alone +survive. Of pre-glacial man none remain, but this may merely indicate +that he has shared the fate of numerous other species that died out and +left no trace. It was only when the growing cold drove man from the open +woods to seek shelter in caves that remnants of his body were likely to +be preserved, and only when a growing sense of human dignity led to the +art of sepulture that the preservation of his bones became assured.</p> + +<p>The burial art was seemingly not practised by the hunters of the +river-drift period or by men of still earlier date. The only remains of +primitive man known are those found in caves and rock shelters. A number +of human skulls have been discovered in these situations, and in a few +instances skeletons have been exhumed. In the neolithic period interment +became more common and more carefully performed, and the progress of +this period is marked by many remains of man, which in later times were +buried in elaborately constructed stone sepulchres, sometimes massive in +materials and covered by great earth-mounds.</p> + +<p>What is meant by the Glacial Age is probably well-known to most readers, +but its close relations<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> to ancient man render it important for those +who are not familiar with its meaning that a passing description of it +should here be given. It will suffice to say that there are found over +much of the northern portions of America and Europe accumulations of +clays, sands, and gravels, sometimes laid down in stratified beds, +sometimes rudely piled together. In these occur blocks of stone, large +and small, and other blocks, occasionally of great size, are found in +isolated localities. The solid rocks which lie beneath these heaps are +often scratched or polished, as if the material had been pushed over +them with great force.</p> + +<p>All geologists now believe that these accumulations were made by ice, at +some remote period when a very cold climate prevailed in the northern +hemisphere, and great glaciers slowly made their way southward, grinding +and rending as they went, and burying the land under their mountain-like +heaps, which sometimes were a mile or more in depth. In North America +the glacial ice pushed southward to the 40th degree of north latitude. +In Europe it extended to the Alpine region, but failed to reach the +countries bordering on the Mediterranean.</p> + +<p>The elaborate and minute investigation of the glacial deposits has made +it highly probable that there were two glacial eras, two periods in +which the ice pushed down far to the south, and that these were +separated by a period in which the ice<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> retreated and an age of warmer +weather intervened. This is known as the interglacial period. So far as +can be positively ascertained, all the authentic relics of man belong to +the Glacial Age. They seem first to become numerous in the interglacial +period, and continue to increase and become diversified as we descend +lower in time. How long ago it was that the sea of ice began its +downflow over the earth it is impossible to say. Some place it back six +hundred thousand or seven hundred thousand years. Some seek to bring it +down to a quite recent date. It is still so uncertain and such a matter +of controversy that the utmost we are able definitely to say is that it +was very long ago.</p> + +<p>While there is no positive proof that men dwelt in Europe before the +coming on of the glacial chill, we have no just reason to doubt it. That +he lived there during glacial times is unquestionable, and we may be +very well assured that a naked tropical animal, destitute of the hairy +covering of the other animals, would not have chosen that frozen period +to migrate to the north. The fact that he was there during the ice age +seems satisfactory evidence that he was there before that age, during +the mild climate of late Tertiary times, and that—for a reason which we +shall hereafter consider—he was caught there and unable to retreat, and +was forced to adapt himself to the new conditions.</p> + +<p>During the warm preceding period he probably<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> wandered as a hunter +through the European forests. But with the gradual coming on of a wintry +chill, as the advance of the ice began, shelter of some kind became +necessary, and he sought refuge in caves. From being a forest wanderer +he became a troglodyte. Everywhere in southwestern Europe we find traces +of this period of man's existence. There is hardly a cave or rock +shelter in that region within which he has not left his marks. He made +his way to England, which was probably then connected by land with +Europe, and dwelt long in its caverns. His period of cave residence, +indeed, appears to have been a very extended one. While it continued, +deposits many feet in depth gradually accumulated on the floors of the +caverns, slowly filling them up. And that, in some cases at least, this +cave residence ended a very long time ago, we are assured, for since +then a great thickness of stalagmite, which is deposited with extreme +slowness, has spread over the lower cave deposits and sealed them in.</p> + +<p>It is in these caves that we find, not only the rude stone spearheads, +scrapers, hammers, etc., the bone awls, borers, and other implements of +palæolithic man, but the bones of man himself. And it is significant of +his primitive condition that these earliest relics indicate a man of a +very low grade of development, mentally far above the ape, it is true, +but mentally and physically much below modern man.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span>The most ape-like of those human remains is the famous Neanderthal +skull, found in 1856 in a limestone cavern of the Neanderthal Valley, +between Düsseldorf and Elberfeld, in Rhenish Prussia. The relics +discovered consist of the brain cap, two femori, two humeri, and other +fragments. The fragment of the skull attracted wide attention by its +bestial aspect, it presenting a low, narrow and receding forehead, and +an enormous thickness of the bony ridges over the eyes, like that seen +in the gorilla. This skull, which was associated with remains of the +cave-bear, hyena, and rhinoceros, is, with one exception, the most +ape-like human relic yet found. Yet its cranial capacity is far above +that of the highest apes, and is assimilated with that of Hottentot and +Polynesian skulls.</p> + +<p>It has been maintained that this is a pathological specimen, and does +not represent normal man. But this theory has been disproved by the fact +that other skulls of similar cranial characters are now known, +indicating that the Neanderthal cranium represents a type of man, not an +abnormal individual. In the Spy Cavern, in the province of Namur, +Belgium, there were found, in 1886, two nearly perfect skeletons of a +man and a woman, both of them with very prominent eye ridges, low, +retreating foreheads, and large orbits. This was strikingly the case +with the woman. The lower jaws in both were heavy, while the woman was +almost destitute of a chin—a marked ape-like characteristic. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span> tibia +was shorter than in any known race and stouter than in most. Its curious +feature was the articulation with the femur, which was such that to +maintain the equilibrium the head and body must have been thrown +forward, as is the case in the anthropoid apes.</p> + +<p>In the cave of Naulette, near Dinant, Belgium, has been found the lower +jaw of a man of decidedly ape-like aspect. Its prognathism or protrusion +is extreme, and the canine teeth were very strong, while the molars were +evidently large and increased in size backward, a non-human +characteristic. At La Denise, in the upper Loire, France, have been +found the frontal bones of a man like the Neanderthal man in type, the +forehead being depressed and retreating, and the superciliary ridges +large and thick. Several other skulls of this general type are known, +but the above will suffice as examples.</p> + +<p>Remains of palæolithic man of considerably higher type are not wanting. +In the rock shelter of Cro-Magnon, France, were found the bones of three +men, one woman, and one child, of more advanced character. These, +however, are of late date and may have been early neolithic. At Engis, +near Liège, Belgium, a deeply buried skull, associated with many remains +of extinct animals, has been dug up, which is by no means ape-like in +character. A still superior example of palæolithic man is the skeleton +found in a cavern at Mentone, east of Nice, France, which represents a +man six<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span> feet in height, with rather large head, high forehead, and very +large facial angle (85°). The cave contained bones of extinct animals, +but no trace of the reindeer.</p> + +<p>There is no occasion to speak here of the many remains of neolithic man +that have been exhumed. Sparse in the early part of the age of polished +stone weapons, they gradually became numerous, and merged into the human +remains of late prehistoric times. The American continent is not without +its relics of ancient man, the most famous of which is the Calaveras +skull, found in 1886 in the auriferous gravels of Calaveras County, +California, at an extraordinary depth. The miners, in excavating a +shaft, passed through several layers of lava and gravel, forming a total +thickness of seventy-nine feet of lava and a considerable thickness of +gravel, making nearly one hundred and thirty feet in all. At this depth +a skull was found imbedded in the gravel, which, if authentic, must have +been overflowed by several successive thick outpours of lava in the +ancient volcanic era of that region. As its authenticity is, however, +still a matter of controversy, nothing further need here be said about +it.</p> + +<p>Leaving these evidences of human antiquity, we come to the most +remarkable and significant of all the known relics of man, if indeed it +is man, for it seems to many a link between man and the ape,—not yet +human, while no longer simian. This is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> the fossil find made by Dr. +Eugene Dubois in 1891 on the banks of the Bengawan River, Java, and +named by him <i>Pithecanthropus erectus</i>, he maintaining that it +represents a new genus of upright animals, or even a new family. The +remains found by him consisted of the upper part of a skull, a molar +tooth, and a femur, possibly not belonging to a single individual, as +they were somewhat separated. These were exhumed from a stratum of +volcanic tufa, claimed to be of Tertiary age, but perhaps Quaternary, +and lay at a depth of some forty feet beneath the surface.</p> + +<p>The femur very closely resembles that of a human being of average size, +and its shape, articulating surface, and other characters show clearly +that the animal stood habitually erect. The principal significance lies +in the tooth and the cranium. The former is like that of the chimpanzee +in shape, but less rugose on its grinding surface. It seems to lie +between the ape and the human type of dentition. The cranium has a low, +depressed arch, with a very narrow frontal region and highly developed +superciliary ridges. The cranial capacity was apparently about one +thousand, that of man being from thirteen hundred to fourteen hundred. +It is therefore said to be "the lowest human cranium yet described, very +nearly as much below the Neanderthal as that is below the normal +European."</p> + +<p>Professor O. C. Marsh, in a paper on the subject in the <i>American +Journal of Science</i>, for February,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> 1895, agrees with Dr. Dubois in his +view of the distinct position of this form in the animal kingdom, and +says that the discoverer "has proved the existence of a new prehistoric +anthropoid form, not human, indeed, but in size, brain power, and erect +posture much nearer man than any animal hitherto discovered, living or +extinct."</p> + +<p>We have here given a short review of a long story. The evidences of +man's former existence upon the earth are multitudinous, but any +extended consideration of them is aside from our purpose, which is +merely to show that the proofs of man's descent found in his physical +structure are strengthened by evidences which he has left strewn behind +him in his long march down the ages. Only a single conclusion can be +drawn from these vestiges of man excavated from caves and gravels, +namely, that they indicate a gradual and steady progression upward from +a very low condition, while they nowhere give evidence of the +traditional fall of man.</p> + +<p>This is certainly the case with the relics of human workmanship. They +begin with the rudest chipped stones, and very slowly improve in form +and finish and become more varied, as we move upward in our search. The +ground and polished stones follow, and the variety of implements +considerably increases, until at length the age of metal, with its +developed industries, is reached. The only seeming evidence of superior +intellect<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> to be found in this gradual progress is that of the drawings +and carvings left us by one group of palæolithic men. But the actual +mental development indicated by these becomes problematical when we +consider that similar drawings are made to-day by the Bushmen of South +Africa, a race of men occupying a very low mental stage. From this fact +we may fairly conclude that the possession of a simple graphic art does +not necessarily indicate any considerable intellectual advance.</p> + +<p>If we consider the remains of man himself, the few bones which mark his +early pathway through time, a similar conclusion must be drawn. +Beginning with Pithecanthropus, which science is yet in doubt whether to +class with the apes or with men, we pass upward to the bestial +Neanderthal man and his fellows of the same low type. Of the sparse +remains of palæolithic man that exist, the most are of this degraded +type. The cranial capacity is usually not small. They had the full brain +development of man. But this simply assimilates them with the low races +of existing savages, many of whom have not developed the simple art of +chipping stone to form weapons and yet have brains of normal human +weight.</p> + +<p>In truth, the influences under which the development of the brain took +place were not what we now call intellectual. Developing man used his +mental powers actively in his dealings with the hostile forces of +surrounding nature, and nearly all the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> forces of evolution were brought +to bear upon the organ of the mind, the body remaining practically +unchanged. His senses became acute, his cunning and alertness high, his +use of weapons skilful, but his field of mental exercise was still the +outer world, and the inner world of thought remained in its embryo +state. The more recent development of the mind has been in its +intellectual powers, while its physical aptitudes have somewhat +declined. This has not yielded any marked increase in the dimensions of +the brain, but it may have had a decided effect upon the proportion of +its parts, the regions of the cerebrum devoted to intellectual activity +probably increasing at the expense of the motor and sensory regions, +while the convolutions may have grown considerably more complicated.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span></p> + + +<h2><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>IV</h2> + +<h3>FROM QUADRUPED TO BIPED</h3> + + +<p>In the question which now confronts us, that of the evolution of man +from the lower world of animals, it is necessary first to state in what +particulars he has evolved, what are the conditions which distinguish +him from the lower animals. Four marked distinctions may be named: his +erect attitude, with the freeing of the fore limbs from use as agents in +locomotion; his employment of natural objects, instead of his bodily +organs, as tools and weapons; his development of vocal language; and his +great mental superiority, with the general use of the mind in his +dealings with nature.</p> + +<p>In none of these particulars does man stand quite alone; in all of them +an affinity with the lower animals exists. Steps of progress in these +directions have been made by many animals, though none of them have +gained any considerable advance. In man's strikingly developed social +habit and organization he has no close counterpart among the +vertebrates, but several among the insects. And it is of much interest +to find that in the highest field of man's progress, his employment of +the mind in his dealings with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> nature, he is chiefly emulated by such +lowly-organized creatures as the ants and the bees.</p> + +<p>We do not need to look far among the lower animals for the species which +come nearest to man in structure and which seem to have immediately +preceded him in the line of descent. We find these forms in the monkeys +or apes, and especially in their highest representatives, the anthropoid +apes. These possess in a partial degree all the special characteristics +of man. They are social in habit; some of them are semi-erect in +posture, and their fore limbs partly freed from use in locomotion; they +possess some imperfect means of vocal communication; they employ the +mind to some extent in place of the body; in short, they seem arrested +forms on the road from brute to man, signal-posts on the highway of +evolution. In physical organization their approach to man is singularly +close. In anatomy man and the higher apes are in most respects +counterparts of each other. The principal anatomical distinction has +been considered to be in the foot, which from the opposable character of +the great toe was classed by Cuvier with the hand, the apes being named +Quadrumana, or four-handed, and man Bimana, or two-handed. Fuller +research has shown that this distinction does not exist, the foot of the +ape being found to agree far more closely with the foot than with the +hand of man. Estimated according to use, the hand is, in the whole +order, the special<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span> prehensile organ; the foot, however prehensile it +may be, is predominantly a walking organ. And the opposability of the +great toe is approached in some men, who have great mobility in this +organ, and can use it for grasping.</p> + +<p>In regard to the brain, the organ of the mind, the difference between +the higher apes and man is almost solely one of comparative size, the +lower intelligence of the apes being indicated by the smaller size of +their brains. The largest ape brain is scarcely half the size of the +smallest human brain. But anatomically they are nearly identical. All +the structural features of the brain are common to both, and the details +are largely filled out in the anthropoid apes, the convolutions being +all present and the pattern of arrangement the same. The brain of the +orang may be said to be like that of man in all respects except size and +the greater symmetry of its convolutions, which are less complicated +with minor convolutions than in man. In truth, the difference between +the brains of man and the orang is almost insignificant as compared with +the difference between those of the orang and the lowest apes. Mr. E. W. +Taylor, who has recently made an exhaustive study of the minute anatomy +of the brain of the chimpanzee, remarks, "The similarity between the +brain of the anthropoid apes and of man is one of the most singular and +interesting facts of which we have knowledge."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span>In any attempt, then, to consider the origin of man from the point of +view of evolution, we are irresistibly drawn to the ape tribe as the +next lower link in the long chain of development, and are led to +consider the characteristics of the apes as the intermediate stage +between the quadruped and the biped, the bridge crossing this great gulf +in organic development. This is by no means to suggest that some one of +the existing anthropoid apes is the direct ancestor of man. Such an idea +has never been entertained by scientists. These animals cannot even +fairly be considered as brothers to man's ancestor, but must be looked +upon as more or less distant cousins, with a physical organization less +favorable to high development than that of man. Man's ancestry lies much +farther back in time, and his progenitor must have been constituted +differently from any of the existing large apes.</p> + +<p>In the ape tribe we are able to trace nearly every step by which the +gulf between quadruped and biped has been crossed, from the quadrupedal +baboon to the nearly erect gibbon. And in seeking to follow this +development through its successive stages, the first point to be +considered is how the apes gained their special power of grasping, that +characteristic to which they undoubtedly owe the partial freedom of +their hands and their tendency to assume the erect attitude.</p> + +<p>The most distinguishing characteristic of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> apes and of the nearly +related lemurs has not hitherto been definitely pointed out. This is +that they form the only group of strictly arboreal animals. The tree is +not alone their native habitat, but they are specially adapted to it in +their organs of motion, a fact which cannot be affirmed of any other +animal group. If we consider, for instance, the squirrels, one of the +best-known groups of tree-living animals, we find them to be members of +the great order of rodents, whose native habitat is the land surface. +Though the squirrels have taken to the trees, there has been no adaptive +change in the structure of their limbs and feet. The same may be said of +almost all tree-dwellers except the lemurs and apes. The sloth, indeed, +is specially adapted in organization to an arboreal residence, but this +change is individual, not tribal, this animal being an aberrant form of +the ground-dwelling edentata. In the apes and lemurs, on the contrary, +the ground-dwellers are the aberrant forms, stray wanderers from the +host. Nearly all the species live in trees, to which they are specially +adapted by the formation of their feet. It remains to inquire how this +deviation in structure arose, what were the steps of development of the +grasping foot and hand, the special characteristic of this group.</p> + +<p>In considering this question, the first fact to appear is that the apes +and lemurs are plantigrade animals. Their natural tendency is to walk on +the sole of the foot, a habit which few other tribes of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span> animals +possess. Most of the larger animals walk on the knuckles or the toes, +and develop claws or hoofs, but the ancestral form of the ape, ages in +the past, was doubtless a sole-walking quadruped, its toes apparently +provided with nails instead of claws. What the story of this very +ancient quadruped was we are quite unable to say. It may, in the +exigencies of existence, have come to a parting of the ways; a section +of the group, drawn by a love of fruit, developing the climbing habit; +the remaining section continuing on the ground and following a separate +line of evolution. Perhaps only a single species took to the trees; for +it is quite possible for a single form, in a new and advantageous +habitat, to vary in time into a great number of species.</p> + +<p>Of all this we can know nothing: but of one thing we may feel assured, +which is that the plantigrade foot is the only one that could have +developed into a grasping organ; such a development being impossible to +the digitigrade or the hoofed animals. One can readily see how the habit +of walking on the sole might tend to a spreading of the toes, in order +to obtain a wider and firmer footing. And it is equally easy to see how +a free and wide motion in the great toe would aid in this result. The +animal may have been at first light in weight and able to support itself +on its unchanged foot, but as it increased in size and weight it would +need a firmer grasp, and the final result of spread<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span>ing its toes for +this purpose may well have been the opposable great toe.</p> + +<p>It must be borne in mind, in this consideration, that the apes differ +from the other tree-dwellers in being destitute of claws. The squirrels, +the opossums, and other arboreal animals have sharp claws, by whose aid +they can easily cling to the surface of the bark-covered boughs. The +nails of the apes are incapable of affording them this service, and it +is not easy to perceive how a foot like theirs could become adapted to +locomotion in the trees otherwise than by the gaining of mobile action +and grasping power in the toes.</p> + +<p>The existing habits of the ape tribe lead us to the conclusion that the +ancestral animal may have soon begun to seek support from upper limbs. +The plantigrade foot is one capable of readily curving into an organ of +support, and in the case of the forefoot the toes would tend to spread +and gain flexibility of motion, and the first toe to become opposable to +the others and yield a more complete grasping power. It does not seem +difficult to comprehend, from this point of view, how the feet of a +five-toed plantigrade animal may in time have developed into grasping +organs, since there would be required only an increased flexibility of +the joints, and a wider and fuller movement of the great toes. That such +a change took place in this instance the facts appear to indicate, the +most simple and probable explanation of the development of the grasp<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span>ing +power in the hands and feet of the ape being seemingly that given above.</p> + +<p>The relation of the lemurs to the apes is not clearly defined. It may be +an ancestral one, or the two animals may represent distinct lines of +descent. In the latter case we would have two lines of animal evolution +in which the grasping power was gained and adaptation to arboreal life +completed. Whatever their relationship, they both possess the opposable +thumb as the hall-mark of their arboreal habitat, and whenever found +walking on the ground they may be looked upon as estrays from their +native place of residence.</p> + +<p>Once the grasping power was gained, the first step of change from the +quadrupedal to the semi-erect attitude was completed. The process may +have begun in the effort to fit the sole of the foot to the rounded +surface of boughs; or its first stage may have been in the seizing of +overhead branches with the flexible hand; or both influences may have +acted simultaneously. We see the result only, we cannot trace the exact +process; but we have as an outcome the adoption of a method of +locomotion different from that of all other tree-dwellers, the forefoot +developing into the hand with its opposable thumb, and the hindfoot +gaining a similar grasping power in the toes.</p> + +<p>The power of walking on a lower limb and grasping an upper one once +attained, a succeeding step in evolution quickly appeared, and one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> of +prime importance to our inquiry. The animal had ceased to be in a full +sense a quadruped, while not yet a biped, and a variation in the length +of its limbs was almost sure to take place. This is an ordinary result +when animals cease to walk on all fours. In the leaping kangaroo and +jerboa a shortening of the arms and lengthening of the legs appear. Here +the arms are relieved from duty and a double duty is laid on the legs, +with the consequence stated. In the ancient dinosaurian reptiles, +upright walkers, the same was the case. Those varied from quite small to +very large animals, but in all known instances the fore limbs were +greatly reduced in size. A similar condition may be seen in the birds, +the bones of whose fore-limbs have largely aborted from lack of +employment as walking organs.</p> + +<p>In the case of the apes and lemurs, while a similar effect has taken +place, an interesting difference appears, due to the difference in +conditions. In these animals the fore limbs are not freed from duty as +organs of locomotion. In many cases, on the contrary, they have an extra +duty put upon them, with the result that they have grown longer instead +of shorter. Very likely these animals differed considerably in the past, +as they do to-day, in the degree of use of their legs and arms. Many of +them walk in the quadruped manner, either on the ground or in trees. +Others make much use of their hands and arms in grasping and swinging<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span>. +Great differences in the use of the arms and legs may have arisen in +different species. In some, the legs may have been mainly trusted to for +support, and the hands used for steadying. In others the arms may have +been the chief locomotive organs and the feet have given steadiness. +Here the legs may have grown the longer, there the arms, the limbs +developing in accordance with their degree of employment. In the lower +monkeys and the lemurs, the bones of the pelvis are altogether +quadrupedal in character. This is not the case in the higher forms, and +in the highest apes the pelvic bones approach those of man.</p> + +<p>Highly interesting examples of these varied results may be seen in the +existing anthropoid apes. In all of them it would appear that the arm +was a prominent factor in locomotion, for in each instance it is longer +than the leg,—but it differs in proportional length in every instance. +It is shortest in the chimpanzee, somewhat longer in the gorilla, still +longer in the orang, and remarkably long in the gibbon. In all these +instances the fact that the arms exceed the legs in length indicates +that they must have played a large and important part in the work of +locomotion, and especially so in the case of the gibbon. It is well +known, in fact, that the gibbons progress very largely by the aid of +their arms, swinging from limb to limb and from tree to tree with +extraordinary strength and facility. The legs lend their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> aid in this, +but the arms are the principal organs of motion, and seem to have +developed in length accordingly.</p> + +<p>As regards the other anthropoid species, Wallace's observations on the +habits of the orang are of interest. This animal usually walks on all +fours on the branches in a semi-erect crouching attitude, but our +naturalist saw one moving by the use of its arms alone. In passing from +tree to tree the arms come actively into play. The animal seizes a +handful of the overlapping boughs of the two trees and swings easily +across the intervening space. While seeming to move very deliberately, +its actual speed was found to be about six miles an hour.</p> + +<p>The organization of man, as he now exists, shows an interesting and +important deviation from that of the manlike apes, and one which serves +as strong evidence that none of these apes occupied a place in his line +of descent. This is that he is a long-legged and short-armed animal, a +condition the reverse of that seen in the anthropoid apes. While man's +hands reach barely to the middle of the thigh, those of the chimpanzee +reach below the knee, of the gorilla to the middle of the leg, of the +orang to the ankle, and of the gibbon to the ground. All these apes have +short legs and long arms. Man, on the contrary, has long legs and short +arms.</p> + +<p>The natural presumption from this interesting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span> fact is that man's +ancestor, which we may provisionally call the man-ape, differed +essentially in its mode of progression from the other apes. The smaller +forms of these usually move on all fours in the trees, though the arms +are always ready for a swing or a climb. The anthropoid apes also show a +tendency to a similar mode of progression, though with a difference in +their mode of walking, which, as we shall see later on, is never that of +the quadruped. As for the man-ape, it may have originally walked in the +same manner as the related species, if we surmise that the variation in +the length of the limbs was a subsequent development. Certainly after +its limbs attained the proportions of those of man, its facility of +swinging from tree to tree must have been diminished, while it would +have found it inconvenient to move in the crouching attitude of the +orang and its fellows. Its easiest attitude must then have been the +erect one, and its motion a true biped walk, not the swinging and +jumping movement of the other anthropoids. In short, the development of +man's ancestor into a short-armed animal, however and whenever it took +place, could not but have interfered seriously with its ease of motion +in the trees. Though this change may have begun in the trees, it +probably had its full development only after the animal made the ground +its habitual place of residence.</p> + +<p>It is of interest to find that all the existing large<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> apes are +arboreal, the gorilla being the least so, probably on account of its +weight. Though they all descend at times to the ground, their awkward +motion on the surface shows them to be out of their element, while they +move with ease and rapidity in the trees. The organization of man +renders it questionable if his primeval ancestor was arboreal to any +similar extent. The indications would seem to be that it made the ground +its habitual place of residence at an early period in its history, and +that the result of this new habit and of its erect attitude was a change +in the relative length of its limbs.</p> + +<p>That this animal dwelt mainly in trees in the first stage of its +existence, and possessed a powerful grasping power in its hands, we have +corroborative evidence in recent studies of child life. The human +infant, in its earliest days of life, displays a remarkable grasping +power, being able to sustain its weight with its hands for a number of +seconds, or a minute or more, at an age when its other muscles are +flabby and powerless. It appears in this to repeat a habit normal to the +ancestral infant, an instinct developed to prevent a fall from its home +among the boughs.</p> + +<p>Yet it is doubtful if the man-ape long remained a specially arboreal +animal. The varied length of arm in the anthropoid apes was doubtless of +early origin, and in all probability man's ancestor had originally a +shorter arm than its related species.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span> If so, this must have rendered it +less agile in trees than other forms. If we could see this ancient +creature in its arboreal home, we should probably find it more inclined +to stand erect than the other apes, walking on a lower limb, and +steadying itself by grasping an upper limb. This would be a more natural +and easy mode of progression to a short-armed animal than the crouching +attitude of the orang or the swinging motion of the gibbon, and its +effect would be to make the erect attitude to a large extent habitual +with this animal.</p> + +<p>In short, man's ancestor may have become in considerable measure a biped +while still largely a dweller in the trees, and to that degree set its +arms free for other duties than that of locomotion. Like the other apes, +it probably often descended to the ground, where its habit of walking +erect on the boughs rendered the biped walk an easy one, or where this +habit may have been originally acquired. While this is conjectural, it +is supported by facts of organization and existing habit, and for the +reasons given it seems highly probable that the ancestor of man took to +a land residence at an early period in its history, climbing again for +food or safety, but dwelling more and more habitually on the earth's +surface. Even at this remote era it may have become essentially human in +organization, its subsequent changes being mainly in brain development, +and only to a minor extent in physical form and structure.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span>Fossil apes have not been found farther back than the Miocene Age of +geology. It is quite probable, however, that they may yet be found in +Eocene strata, since examples of their highest representatives, the +anthropoid or manlike apes, have been found in Miocene rocks. The fact +that these large apes are now few in number of species, is no proof that +many forms of them may not have formerly existed, and among these we may +class the ancestor of man.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span></p> + + +<h2><a name="V" id="V"></a>V</h2> + +<h3>THE FREEDOM OF THE ARMS</h3> + + +<p>Man's ancestor is by no means the only form of ape that has made the +earth's surface its place of residence. The baboon is one example of a +number of forms that dwell habitually upon the ground, though they have +not lost their agility in climbing. But these species have returned to +the quadruped habit, to which the equal length of their limbs adapts +them. All the anthropoid apes dwell to some extent upon the ground, but +these can neither be called quadrupeds nor bipeds, their usual mode of +progression being an awkward compromise between the two. The same may be +said of one of the lemurs, the propithecus, the only member of its tribe +that attempts to move in the erect attitude. It does not walk, however, +but progresses by a series of jumps, its arms being held erect, as if +for balancing.</p> + +<p>Of the apes, though many can stand upright, the gibbon is the only one +that attempts to walk in this position. This is a true walk, though not +a very graceful one. The animal maintains a fairly upright posture, but +walks with a waddling motion, its body rocking from side to side. Its +soles are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span> placed flat on the ground, with the great toes spread +outward. Its arms either hang loosely by its side, are crossed over its +head, or are held aloft, swaying like balancing poles and ready to seize +any overhead support. Its walk is quickly changed to a different motion +if any occasion for haste arises. At once its long arms are dropped to +the ground, the knuckles closed, and it progresses by a swinging or +leaping motion, the body remaining nearly erect, but being swung between +the arms.</p> + +<p>None of the other anthropoid apes ever walk erect, though they assume at +times the upright posture. But though they use all their limbs as +walking organs, they show no tendency to revert to the habit of the +quadrupeds. Their motion is like that of the gibbon when in haste, a +series of jumps or swings between the supporting arms. The shortness of +their arms, however, prevents them from standing erect, like the gibbon, +in doing this; and they bend forward to a degree depending on the length +of their arms, the chimpanzee the most, the orang the least.</p> + +<p>As a rule, the flat sole of the foot is set on the ground, with the toes +extended, as in man, but the toes are sometimes doubled under in +walking. The orang rarely touches the ground with the sole or the closed +toes, but walks on the outer edge of the foot, the feet being bent +inward as if clasping the rounded sides of a bough. The other species +have a tendency in the same direction, the legs<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span> being bowed and the +gait rolling. In using the hands in walking, the closed knuckles are +usually placed on the ground, though occasionally the open palm is +employed. The whole movement of these animals is strikingly awkward, and +goes to indicate that there can be no satisfactory compromise between +life in the tree and on the ground.</p> + +<p>The significant fact in these attempts to walk is that none of the +anthropoid apes show any inclination to revert to the quadruped habit. +Their attitude is in all cases an approach toward the erect one, which +posture is attained by the gibbon. The arms are used not as walking but +as swinging organs. Evidently their mode of life in the trees has +overcome all tendency toward the quadruped motion in these apes and +developed a tendency toward the biped. But none of them have gained the +muscular development of the leg known as the calf, nor an adjustment of +the joints to the erect attitude, since none but the gibbon walks erect, +and it does so only at occasional intervals.</p> + +<p>The conclusion to be derived from all this is that the man-ape was in +its early days much more truly a biped than are any of the species +named. Like them, it had no tendency to revert to the quadruped habit. +The shortness of its arms was unsuited to this, while rendering it +impossible for the animal to progress in the semi-erect, swinging +fashion of the other anthropoid apes. As a result of its bodily +formation, it may have begun to walk erect at a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span> very remote date, with +a consequent straightening of the joints and muscular development of the +legs. When this condition was fully attained, it was practically a man +in physical conformation, though mentally still an ape, and with a long +development of the brain to pass through before it could reach the human +level of mind.</p> + +<p>The far-reaching conclusions here reached are all based on one important +fact, the shortness of man's arms as compared with the disproportionate +length of arm in the anthropoid apes. This, for the reasons given, +rendered the adaptation of the man-ape to life in the trees inferior to +that of the long-armed apes; while, as has just been said, it unfitted +it to walk on the ground either as a quadruped or in the jumping method +of its fellow anthropoids. In short, the biped attitude was much the +best suited to its organization and the one it was most likely to +assume. This once adopted as its habitual posture, efficiency in walking +would be gained by practice.</p> + +<p>When once this animal became a ground walker, its facility of motion in +the trees was in a measure lost. When the feet became accustomed to the +flat surface of the ground, they became less capable of grasping the +rounded surface of the bough. Fitness to the one situation entailed loss +of fitness to the other. The feet of the apes can clasp the bough +firmly, by curving around its opposite sloping sides, and to this these +animals doubtless owe<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span> their bowed legs and their disposition to walk on +the outer edge of the foot. This disposition the man-ape lost as its +foot fitted itself to the surface of the ground. It was probably +retained in a measure by the young, after it had been lost by the mature +form, and is still manifested in the position of the foot in the human +embryo.</p> + +<p>These considerations bring us to an important question: Why did the +man-ape gain a length of arm not the best suited to its arboreal +habitat? Why, in fact, do changes in physical structure ever take place? +How does an animal succeed in passing from one mode of life to another, +when during the transition period it is imperfectly adapted to either, +and therefore at a seeming disadvantage in the struggle for existence? +The study of animal development has given rise to certain difficult +problems of this character, some of which have been solved by showing +that the supposed disadvantage did not arise, or that it was balanced by +some equal advantage. In this way a considerable gap in life conditions +has perhaps occasionally been crossed. Small gaps have doubtless been +frequently passed over in the same manner.</p> + +<p>In the case of the anthropoid apes, we perceive a considerable variation +in the length of the arms, from the very long arms of the gibbon to the +comparatively short ones of the chimpanzee. These differences are +probably the result of some difference in their life habits, and accord +with the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span> possibility of a still shorter arm in the man-ape. There is, +however, some reason to believe, as we shall show later on, that the arm +of this animal was longer and the leg shorter than in man himself, their +comparative length perhaps not differing greatly from that of the +chimpanzee. Aside from all other considerations, the use of the legs as +the sole organs of locomotion could not well fail to produce this +result, the legs growing longer and stronger in consequence of the +increased duty laid upon them, and the arms growing shorter and weaker +through their release from duty in locomotion. The case does not differ +in character from those of the dinosauria and the kangaroos, in both of +which instances a release of the arms from duty in walking was followed +by a considerable decrease in length and strength, while the legs grew +proportionally stronger.</p> + +<p>If any disadvantage attended the shortening of the arms of the man-ape, +to the extent that this may have taken place in the tree, it was +probably correlated with some advantage. In the various instances of +short-armed animals cited this appears to have been the case, and it was +probably so in man's ancestral form. While the hands continued useful in +grasping and enabling the animal to maintain its place on the boughs, +they may have been gradually diverted to some other service, with the +result that the animal found the tree less desirable than before as a +place of residence and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> sought the ground instead. This would be +particularly the case if the new duty was one best exercised upon the +ground.</p> + +<p>Shall we offer a suggestion as to this new use? Such changes are usually +the result of some change of habit in the animal, frequently one that +has to do with its food. Change of diet or of the mode of obtaining food +is the most potent influencing cause of change of habit in animals, and +the one that first calls for consideration.</p> + +<p>The apes are frugivorous animals, though not exclusively so. Carnivorous +tendencies are displayed by many of them. They rob birds' nests of their +eggs and young, they capture and devour snakes and other small animals. +In zoölogical gardens monkeys are often observed to catch and eat mice. +It is evident that many of them might readily become carnivorous to a +large extent under suitable conditions. The large apes are usually +frugivorous, but some of them eat animal food. This is the case with +both the chimpanzee and the gorilla. The latter, while living usually on +fruit and often making havoc in the sugar-cane plantations and +rice-fields of the natives, also eats birds and their eggs, small +mammals and reptiles, and is said to devour large animals when found +dead, though it does not attempt to kill them for food. The young +gorilla which was kept in captivity at Berlin became quite omnivorous in +its diet.</p> + +<p>With all this readiness to eat animal food, none<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> of the existing apes +are carnivorous to any large extent, but the fact of this inclination +makes it not improbable that some of the apes of the past may have been +much more so. It is quite within the limits of probability, for +instance, that the man-ape at an early date became omnivorous in its +diet. Its change in structure may well have been the result of a decided +change in diet, such as that from fruit to flesh food. Such a radical +change as that from vegetable to animal food would certainly demand a +more active employment of the arms as agents in capture. Fruits and nuts +wait to be pulled; animals must be caught before they can be eaten. The +former is an easy matter to an arboreal animal; the latter might prove a +difficult one, especially if large animals were to be captured.</p> + +<p>In short, the pursuit and capture of any of the larger animals for prey +could not fail to modify to a great degree the use of the arms. Their +employment in locomotion would interfere seriously with their utility in +this direction. To succeed in capturing nimble prey by an animal with +the ape form of hands a considerable freedom of the arms would be +necessary, and the feet would have to be mainly, if not wholly, depended +upon for motion. The ape has not the sharp claws of the carnivora with +which to seize and hold its prey. It must have been obliged to use its +palms for this purpose, and this it could not well have done unless they +were free in their action.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span>It is conceivable, indeed, that the man-ape may have run down its prey, +or sprung upon it from covert, and seized it with the hands, but there +is good reason to believe that this was not its mode of capture. The +organization of the ape tribe gives it a characteristic action which is +not to be found in any other group of the vast animal kingdom, that of +handling and throwing missiles. In this it necessarily stands alone, +since no other animal has a grasping palm. The power is one of prime +importance, for without it we cannot perceive how man could ever have +emerged from the general animal kingdom. The use of missiles is by no +means uncommon with the monkeys. We cannot safely accept the story that +American monkeys will throw cocoanuts from tree-tops at those who hurl +stones at them from below, from the fact that the cocoanut seems too +heavy and too firmly fixed to its support for the strength of those +small species, but it is not uncommon for them to throw lighter objects. +Yet in doing this they usually seem to have no idea of aim, but toss the +missile aimlessly into the air. Of the large apes, the orang will break +off branches and fling them at its tormentors, or will throw the thick +husks of the durian fruit, but with similar lack of aim. The most +skilful in this exercise are some species of baboons, which can hurl +branches, stones, or hard clods with much dexterity.</p> + +<p>It is of interest to find existing apes availing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span> themselves of their +grasping power in this manner, since it leads us irresistibly to the +conclusion that the man-ape may have done the same thing. The species +which use missiles fail to take aim for two reasons, one that they +employ them only occasionally, often in imitation of human action, the +other that their arms are ill suited to this motion from their constant +employment in another duty. In the case of the man-ape we may justly +look for a more effective result, since if the arms became relieved from +duty in locomotion they were free to gain facility of action in other +directions.</p> + +<p>If in addition to this the man-ape began to use missiles with a definite +purpose in view, that of striking down animal prey, so that the use of +such weapons became habitual instead of occasional, it would soon gain +some power of aim and a growing strength and skill in the throwing +motion. It is quite probable, also, that an early use of weapons was in +the form of clubs, which were retained in the grasp to strike down the +prey when overtaken. In this case, we may imagine our primitive biped +running swiftly after its prey, club in hand, striking at it when within +reach; or, if it should prove too swift, hurling the club or a stone +through the air with the hope of bringing it down in this manner. Such a +flinging action, if now and then successful, would be likely soon to +become habitual; while the arm would grow accustomed to this new motion, +and attain skill in taking aim. We may<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span> reasonably infer, also, that the +club would be used for defence as well as for offence, in case the +man-ape were in its turn pursued by larger animals. Instead of fleeing +to the nearest tree, it might now stand its ground and beat off its +enemy.</p> + +<p>All must admit the probability, in a large tribe of animals with +grasping power in their hands, and in the habit of using missiles +occasionally, of one or more species coming to use them habitually. All +the anthropoid apes are certainly intelligent enough to do this, if it +should prove advantageous to them. Its principal advantage, however, +would seem to be to a species that became largely carnivorous and needed +to capture running or flying prey.</p> + +<p>The habit of using implements is one of supreme importance in animal +evolution. To it we owe man as he exists to-day. While animals confined +themselves to their natural weapons of teeth and claws, their +development must have remained a very slow one and been confined within +narrow limits. When they once began to add to their natural powers those +of surrounding nature, by the use of artificial weapons, the first step +in a new and illimitable range of evolution was taken. From that day to +this, man has been occupied in unfolding this method, and has advanced +enormously beyond his primal state. A crude and simple use of weapons +gave him, in time, supremacy over all the lower animals. An advanced use +of weapons<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span> and tools has given him, in a measure, supremacy over nature +herself, and raised him to a stage almost infinitely beyond that of the +animal which trusts solely to teeth and claws.</p> + +<p>So far as we know, only one of the innumerable species of animals +attained this development; unless, indeed, the various races of men had +more than one ape ancestor. For the appearance of man there became +necessary, first, the development of an order of animals with power of +grasp in their hands; and, second, the development of one or more biped +species, with hands freed from duty as walking organs and capable of use +in other directions. A third necessity was very probably the exchange of +the frugivorous for the carnivorous habit, which would act as a +predisposing agency in inducing the animal to desert the tree for the +ground, and to employ weapons in the chase. The final result of all this +would be an erect, walking, and running animal, with arms and hands +quite free from their old duty, except during an occasional return to +the tree, and with the necessary straightening of joints and development +of supporting muscles.</p> + +<p>What has been advanced above is, no doubt, largely a series of +assumptions and conjectures, few of which are sustained by known facts. +But as the matter stands, no other method of dealing with it can be +adopted, since the facts in the case have in great part vanished. What +we know positively<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span> is that man exists, and that in physical structure +he is very closely related to the anthropoid apes. What we have +excellent reason to feel assured of is that man has descended from the +lower animals, and in all probability from an ape-like ancestor. We know +that one or more species of anthropoid apes have become extinct, and can +reasonably conjecture that one ancient species became modified into the +form of man. We know that human remains have been found that, to some +small extent, fill the gap between man and the ape. Correlative evidence +exists in the variations in length of limb in the existing anthropoids, +their efforts to walk upright, their varied degree of dependence upon +the arms for locomotion, and the occasional use of missiles by these and +lower forms. To these may be added the carnivorous tastes shown by many +members of the ape family, with the indication that more decided +carnivorous habits might readily be assumed.</p> + +<p>Taking the stand that such a partly carnivorous anthropoid ape, biped in +structure, appeared and made the ground its usual place of residence, we +find ourselves on the direct trail of man. Long ago as this may have +been, and far and difficult as was the journey to be made, the way was +thenceforth straight and well-defined. Such an animal, living largely on +animal food, and using weapons superior to its natural ones in the +capture of prey, was essentially a man, however low may<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> still have been +its level of intelligence. Its feet were firmly fixed upon the upward +track, and only time and stress of circumstance were needed to carry it +upward to the high level of civilized man.</p> + +<p>We may, indeed, go further than this. We are in a measure justified in +saying what this man-ape was like, this creature which had left its +early home in the trees and began to walk upright upon the earth, +pursuing the larger animals and capturing them for food. It was probably +much smaller than existing man, little if any more than four feet in +height and not more than half the weight of man. Its body was covered, +though not profusely, with hair, the hair of the head being woolly or +frizzly in texture, and the face provided with a beard. The complexion +was not jet black, like the typical negro, but of a dull brown hue, the +hair being somewhat similar in color. The arms were lank and rather +long, the back much curved, the chest flat and narrow, the abdomen +protruding, the legs rather short and bowed, the walk a waddling motion, +somewhat like that of the gibbon. It had small, deep-set eyes, greatly +protruding mouth with gaping lips, huge ears, and in general a very +ape-like aspect. Our warrant for this description of man's ancestor must +be left for a later portion of our work. We shall only say here that it +is based on known fact, not on fancy.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span></p> + + +<h2><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>VI</h2> + +<h3>THE DEVELOPMENT OF INTELLIGENCE</h3> + + +<p>The full adoption of the erect attitude gave the ancestor of man an +immense motor supremacy over the lower animals, for it completely +released his fore limbs from duty as organs of support and set them free +for new and superior purposes. In all the animal kingdom below man there +exists but a single form that emulates him in this possession of a +grasping organ which takes no part in walking or in other modes of +locomotion. This is the elephant, whose nose and upper lip have +developed into an enormous and highly flexible trunk, with delicate +grasping powers. The possession of this organ may have had much to do +with the intellectual acumen of the elephant. Yet it is far inferior in +its powers to the arm and hand of man; while the form, size, and food of +the elephant stand in the way of the progress which might have been made +by an animal possessed of such an organ in connection with a better +suited bodily structure.</p> + +<p>For a period of many millions of years the world of vertebrate life +continued quadrupedal, or where a variation from this structure took +place<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span> the fore limbs remained to a large extent organs of locomotion. +Finally a true biped appeared. For a period of equal duration the mental +progress of animals was exceedingly slow. Then, with almost startling +suddenness, a highly intellectual animal appeared. Thus the coming of +man indicated, in two directions, an extraordinary deviation from the +ordinary course of animal development. Both physically and mentally +evolution seemed to take an enormous leap, instead of proceeding by its +usual minute steps, and in the advent of man we have a phenomenon +remarkable alike in the development of the body and the mind.</p> + +<p>So far our attention has been directed to the evolution of the human +body, now we must consider that of the human mind. In seeking through +the animal kingdom for the probable ancestor of man in his bodily +aspect, we were drawn irresistibly to the ape tribe, as the only one +that made any near approach to him in structure. In considering the case +from the point of view of mental development we find a similar +irresistible drawing toward the apes, as the most spontaneously +intelligent of the mammalia. While many of the lower animals are capable +of being taught, the ape stands nearly alone in the power of thinking +for itself, the characteristic of self-education.</p> + +<p>Innumerable testimonials could be quoted from observers in evidence of +the superior mental powers of the apes. Hartmann says of them that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> +"their intelligence sets them high above other mammals," and Romanes +that they "certainly surpass all other animals in the scope of their +rational faculty." It is scarcely necessary here to give extended +examples of ape intelligence. Hundreds of instances are on record, many +of them showing remarkable powers of reasoning for one of the lower +animals. The ape, it is true, is not alone in its teachableness. Nearly +all the domestic animals can be taught, the dog and the elephant to a +considerable degree. And evidences of reasoning out some subject for +themselves now and then appear in the domesticated species; but these +are rare instances, not frequent acts as in the case of the apes.</p> + +<p>The apes, indeed, rarely need teaching. They observe and imitate to an +extent far beyond that displayed by any others of the lower animals, and +the more remarkable from the fact that in nearly every instance the +animals concerned began life in the wild state, and had none of the +advantages of hereditary influence possessed by the domesticated dog and +horse. Among the most interesting examples of spontaneous acts of +intelligence of the ape tribe are those related by Romanes, in his +"Animal Intelligence," of the doings of a cebus monkey, which he kept +for several months under close observation in his own house. Instead of +selecting general examples of ape actions, we may cite some of the +doings of this intelligent creature.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span>The cebus did not wait to be shown how to do things, but was an adept in +devising ways to do them himself. He had the monkey love of mischief +well developed, and not much that was breakable came whole from his +hands. When he could not break an egg cup by dashing it to the ground, +he hammered it on the post of a brass bedstead until it was in +fragments. In breaking a stick, he would pass it down between a heavy +object and the wall, and break it by hanging on its end. In destroying +an article of dress, he would begin by carefully pulling out the +threads, and afterward tear it to pieces with his teeth. His nuts he +broke with a hammer precisely as a man would have done and without being +shown its use. Ridicule was not pleasant to him; he strongly resented +being laughed at, and would throw anything within reach at his tormentor +and with a skill and force not usual with monkeys. Taking the missile in +both hands and standing erect, he would extend his long arms behind his +back and hurl the article by bringing them forcibly forward.</p> + +<p>If any object he wanted was too far away to reach, he would draw it +toward him with a stick. Failing in this, he was observed to throw a +shawl back over his head, and then fling it forward with all his +strength, holding it by two corners. When it fell over the object, he +brought this within reach by drawing in the shawl. In his gyrations, +the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span> chain by which he was fastened often became twisted around some +object. He would now examine it intently, pulling it in opposite ways +with his fingers until he had discovered how the turns ran. This done, +he would carefully reverse his motions until the chain was quite +disentangled.</p> + +<p>The most striking act of intelligence told of this creature was his +dealings with a hearth-brush which fell into his hands, and of which the +handle screwed into the brush. It took him no long time to find out how +to unscrew the handle. When this was achieved, he at once began to try +and screw it in again. In doing so he showed great ingenuity. At first +he put the wrong end of the handle into the hole, and turned it round +and round in the right direction for screwing. Finding this would not +work, he took it out and tried the other end, always turning in the +right direction. It was a difficult feat to perform, as he had to turn +the screw with both hands, while the flexible bristles of the brush +prevented it from remaining steady. To aid his operations he now held +the brush with one foot, while turning with both hands. It was still +difficult to make the first turn of the screw, but he worked on with +untiring perseverance until he got the thread to catch, and then screwed +it in to the end. The remarkable thing was that he never tried to turn +the handle in the wrong direction, but always screwed it from left to +right, as if he knew that he must reverse the original motion.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span> The feat +accomplished, he repeated it, and continued to do so until he could +perform it easily. Then he threw the brush aside, apparently taking no +more interest in that over which he had worked so persistently. No man +could have devoted himself more earnestly to learn some new art, and +become more indifferent to it when once learned. These are a few only of +the many acts of intelligence observed by Mr. Romanes in the doings of +this animal. They will suffice as examples of what we mean by +spontaneous intelligence. The cebus did not need to be shown how to do +things; it worked them out for itself much as a man would have done, +performing acts of an intricacy far beyond any ever observed in other +classes of animals in captivity. It may be said further that the +displays of spontaneous intelligence shown by dogs, cats, and similar +animals have usually been intended in some way for the advantage of the +animal; few or none are on record which indicate a mere desire to know +without ulterior advantage; no persevering effort, like that with the +brush, which is purely an instance of self-instruction.</p> + +<p>Examples of intelligence of this advanced character could be cited from +observation of monkeys of various species. The anthropoid apes have not +been brought to any large extent under observation, but are notable for +their intelligence in captivity. It is not easy to observe them in a +state of nature, and nearly all we know is that the orang<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span> makes itself +a nightly bed of branches broken off and carefully laid together, and is +said to cover itself in bed with large leaves, if the weather is wet. +The chimpanzee has a similar habit, and the gorilla is said to build +itself a nest in which the female and the young sleep, the old male +resting at the foot of the tree, on guard against their dangerous foe, +the leopard.</p> + +<p>It is the young animals of these species which are the most social and +docile and most approach man in appearance. As they grow older, their +specific characters become more marked. Fierce and sullen as is the old +gorilla, the young of this species is playful and affectionate in +captivity and is given to mischievous tricks. The one that was kept for +a time in Berlin showed much good-nature, playfulness, and intelligence, +and some degree of monkey mischievousness. It was very cunning in +carrying out its plans, particularly in stealing sugar, of which it was +very fond.</p> + +<p>The chief examples of anthropoid intelligence are told of the +chimpanzee, which has been most frequently kept in captivity. It is +usually lively and good-tempered and is very teachable. Some of the +stories of its intelligence may be apocryphal, as those told by Captain +Grandpré of a chimpanzee which performed all the duties of a sailor on +board ship, and of one that would heat the oven for a baker and inform +him when it was of the right temperature. But there are authenticated +stories<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span> of chimpanzee intelligence which give it a high standing in +this respect among the lower animals.</p> + +<p>The emotional nature of the ape is also highly developed. It displays an +affection equal to that of the dog, and a sympathy surpassing that of +any other animal below man. The feeling displayed by monkeys for others +of their kind in pain is of the most affecting nature, and Brehm relates +that in the monkeys of certain species kept under confinement by him in +Africa, the grief of the females for the loss of their young was so +intense as to cause their death. More than once an ardent hunter has +seen such examples of tender solicitude among monkeys for the wounded +and of grief for the dead as to resolve never to fire at one of the race +again.</p> + +<p>James Forbes, in his "Oriental Memoirs," relates a striking instance of +this kind. One of a shooting party had killed a female monkey in a +banian tree, and carried it to his tent. Forty or fifty of the tribe +soon gathered around the tent, chattering furiously and threatening an +attack, from which they were only diverted by the display of the +fowling-piece, whose effects they seemed perfectly to understand. But +while the others retreated, the leader of the troop stood his ground, +continuing his threatening chatter. Finding this of no avail, he came to +the door of the tent, moaning sadly, and by his gestures seeming to beg +for the dead body. When it was given, he took it sorrowfully up in his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> +arms and carried it away to the waiting troop. That hunter never shot a +monkey again.</p> + +<p>This deep feeling for the dead is probably not common among monkeys. The +gibbon, for instance, is said to take no notice of the dead. It is, +however, highly sympathetic to injured and sick companions, and this +feeling seems common to all the apes. No human being could show more +tender care of wounded or helpless companions than has often been seen +in members of this affectionate tribe of animals.</p> + +<p>Without giving further examples of the intelligence and sympathy of the +apes, we may say that they possess in a marked degree the mental powers +to which man owes so much, viz. observation and imitation. The ape is +the most curious of the lower animals—that is, it possesses the faculty +of observation in an unusual degree. What we call curiosity in the ape +is the basic form of the characteristic which we call attention or +observation in man. Its seeming great activity in the ape is what might +naturally be expected in an observant animal when removed from its +natural habitat to a location where all around it is new and strange. +Man under like circumstances is as curious as the ape, while the latter +in its native trees probably finds little to excite its special +attention. In both man and the ape it needs novelty to excite curiosity.</p> + +<p>Again, the ape is imitative in a high degree. This faculty also it does +not share with the lower<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span> animals, but does with man, imitation being +one of the methods by which he has attained his supremacy. Observation, +imitation, education, are the three levers in the development of the +human intellect. The first two of these the ape possesses in a marked +degree. It is susceptible also to the last, being very teachable. +Education certainly exists to some extent among the apes in their +natural habitat, perhaps to as great an extent as it did in primitive +man. In the latter case it is doubtful if there was much that could be +called designed education, the young gaining their degree of knowledge by +observing and imitating their elders. The same is certainly the case +among the apes.</p> + +<p>We may reasonably ask what there is in the life and character of the +apes to give them this mental superiority over the remaining lower +animals. It is certainly not due to the arboreal life and powers of +grasp of these animals, for in those respects they resemble the lemurs, +which are greatly lacking in intelligence. Whether the monkeys emerged +from the lemurs or the two groups developed side by side is a question +as yet unsettled; at all events they are closely similar in conditions +of existence. Yet while the monkeys are the most intelligent and +teachable of animals, the lemurs are among the least intelligent of the +mammalia. There is here a marked distinction which is evidently not due +to difference of structure or habitat, and must<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> have its origin in some +other characteristic, such as difference in life habits.</p> + +<p>There is certainly nothing in the diet of the ape to develop +intelligence. The frugivorous and herbivorous animals do not need +cunning and shrewdness to anything like the extent necessary in +carnivorous animals. They do not need to pursue or lie in wait for prey; +and they escape from their enemies mainly through strength, speed, +concealment, or other physical powers or methods. Escape may +occasionally develop mental alertness, but does not usually do so. +Certainly if the alert, watchful, suspicious habits of the apes are due +to the requisite of avoiding dangerous enemies, we might naturally look +for similar habits in the lemurs, which are similarly situated. And if +we consider the wide distribution of the apes throughout the tropics of +both hemispheres, and their great diversity in species and condition, it +seems very unlikely that in all these localities their relations with +other animals would be such as to develop the mental alertness which +they so generally display. The fact appears to be that, while this may +be a cause, it is not a leading cause, of mental development in animals, +and that we must seek elsewhere for the origin of animal intelligence.</p> + +<p>Research, indeed, leads us to examples of intelligence where we should +least expect to find it. Among the mammalia we perceive one marked +example in the beavers, the only one in the great<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> class of the rodents, +with their nine hundred or more of species. But we must go still lower, +to the insects, for the most striking examples, finding them alone in +the ants, the bees, and the termites, among the vast multitude of insect +forms. Less marked instances appear in the elephants, in some of the +birds, and in certain other gregarious animals.</p> + +<p>From these examples, and what is elsewhere known of animal intelligence, +one broad conclusion may be drawn, that all the strikingly intelligent +animals are strongly social in their habits, and that no decided display +of intelligence is to be found among solitary species. This conclusion +becomes almost a demonstration in the case of the ants and bees. The +ants, for instance, comprise hundreds of species, spread over most of +the world, mainly social, but occasionally solitary. The social species, +while varying greatly in habit, all display powers of intelligence, and +these so diversified as to indicate many separate lines of evolution. +The solitary ants, on the contrary, manifest no special intelligence, +and do not rise above the general insect level. The same may be said of +the bees. The hive bee, the most communal in habit, shows the highest +traits of intelligent activity. The bees which form smaller groups and +the social wasps stand at a lower level, and the solitary bees and wasps +sink to the ordinary insect plane. We arrive at like conclusions from +observation of the social termites, or white ants, some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span> species of +which are remarkable for their intelligent coöperation and division of +duties.</p> + +<p>Examples similar in kind may be drawn from the vertebrates. Among the +birds there are none more quick-witted than the social crows, none with +less display of intelligence than the solitary carnivorous species. +Birds are rather gregarious than social. There are few species whose +association is above that of mere aggregation in flight. Those more +distinctively social usually have special habits which indicate +intelligence—as in the often cited instances of their seemingly trying +and executing delinquents. Among the carnivorous mammals the social dog +or wolf tribe displays the intelligent habit of mutual aid. The horses, +oxen, deer, and other gregarious hoofed animals have a degree of +division of duties, but their intelligence is of a lower grade than that +of the dogs and the elephants. On the whole, it may be affirmed that the +social habit is frequently accompanied by instances of special +intelligence to which we find no counterpart among the solitary forms, +and that the highest manifestations of intelligence in the lower animals +are found in those forms which possess communal habits, as the ants, +bees, termites, and beavers.</p> + +<p>One important characteristic of the communal animals is that they become +mentally specialized. They round up their powers, build barriers of +habit over which they cannot pass, perform the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span> same acts with such +interminable iteration that what began as intellect sinks back into +instinct. Each individual has fixed duties and is confined within a +limited circle of acts, whose scope it cannot pass, or only to the +minutest extent.</p> + +<p>The non-communal social animals, on the contrary, are not thus +restricted. Their intelligence is of a generalized character, and is +capable of developing in new channels. None are tied down to special +duties, each possesses the full powers of all, and they are thus more +open to a continued growth of the intellect than the communal forms. To +this class belongs the ape. Its intelligence is general, not special; +broadly capable of development, not narrowed and bound in by the +limitation of certain fixed and special duties.</p> + +<p>The suggestions above offered point to three grades of community among +animals, which may be designated the communal, the social, and the +solitary. Among these there are, of course, many stages of transition +from one to the other. The specially communal, including the ants, bees, +termites, and beavers, are those in which there is almost a total loss +of individuality, each member working for the good of the community as a +unit, not for its personal advantage. The result consists in organized +industries, division and specialization of duties, a common home, food +stock, etc. At a lower level in animal life, that of the hydroid polyps, +communism has become so complete that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span> the community has grown into an +actual individual, the members not being free, but acting as organs of +an aggregate mass, in which each performs some special duty for the good +of the community.</p> + +<p>The social animals differ from the communal in that the individuality of +the members is fully preserved. There is some measure of work for the +group, some degree of mutual aid, some evidence of leadership and +subordination, but these are confined to a few exigencies of life, while +in most of the details of existence each member of the group acts for +itself. The solitary animals are those which do not form groups larger +than that of the family, and into whose life the principle of mutual +aid, outside the immediate family relations, does not enter. Each acts +for itself alone, and intercourse between the individuals of the species +is greatly restricted.</p> + +<p>The advantages of social habits among animals are evident. There is +excellent reason to believe that all animals, and especially such +advanced forms as the vertebrates and the higher arthropods, have some +power of mental development, some facility in devising new methods of +action to meet new situations. Though their reasoning power may be +small, it is not quite lacking, and many examples of the exercise of the +faculty of thought could be cited if necessary.</p> + +<p>What we are here concerned with, is the final result of such exercises +of individual thought<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span> powers. In the case of the solitary forms, such +new conceptions die with the individual. Though they may exert an +influence on the development of the nervous system, and aid in the +hereditary transmission of more active brain powers, they are lost as +special ideas, fail to be taken up and repeated by other members of the +species. This is not the case with the social animals. Each of these has +some faculty of observation and some tendency to imitation, and useful +steps of advance made by individuals are likely to be observed and +retained as general habits of the community. Anything of importance that +is gained may be preserved by educative influences. The facility of +mental communication between these creatures is perhaps much greater +than is generally supposed, and acts of importance which are not +directly observed might in many cases be transmitted through repetition +for the benefit of the group. We know this to be the main agency in +human progress. New ideas are of rare occurrence with man. Ideas of +permanent value do not occur to one per cent., perhaps not to one +hundredth of one per cent., of civilized mankind, yet few of such ideas +are lost, and that which has proved of advantage to an individual soon +becomes the common possession of a community.</p> + +<p>Among the lower animals new and advantageous ideas are probably of +exceedingly rare occurrence. When they do occur, their advantage to +solitary<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span> forms is very slight, being that of minute steps of brain +development and hereditary transmission of the same. To social forms +they are doubly advantageous, since, while they tend to brain +development, they may also be preserved in their original form, and +transmitted directly to members of the group. They are still more +advantageous to the communal animals, from the closer intercourse of +these, and their constant association in acts of mutual aid. But in the +latter instance their influence is usually exerted for the benefit of +the community as a unit, while in the case of social animals it is of +advantage to the individual.</p> + +<p>The result of such a process of evolution in the case of the communal +animals is a strict specialism. A series of acts of advantage to the +community are slowly developed, and are repeated so frequently that they +become instinctive, while a fixed circle of duties arises, through whose +links it is almost impossible to break. There is no reason to believe +that the individual initiative is wanting. The varied round of duties of +a community of ants, for instance, could only have arisen through step +after step of progress from the condition of the solitary ants. If such +steps have been made, others may be made, and are likely to be preserved +if found advantageous. The ant individual preserves its powers of +observation and thought and may initiate new processes. But most of the +ant communities are already so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span> excellently adapted to the conditions of +their life as to leave little opportunity for improvement, so that the +adoption of new and advantageous habits are certain to be exceedingly +rare.</p> + +<p>It is an interesting fact that communalism has been confined to animals +of comparatively low organization. The most complete examples of it +exist in the polyps and some other low forms, in which each community +has become a compound individual, the members remaining attached to the +parent stock. The next higher examples to be met are the frequently +cited ants and bees, belonging to the lowly organized class of +arthropoda, yet, through the advantage of association and mutual aid, +developing actions and habits only found elsewhere in the human race. +The only example among vertebrates is that of the beavers, members of +the low order of rodents. With these the results are less varied and +intricate than with the ants, in accordance with the much smaller size +of the community. All the higher vertebrates are either social or +solitary in habit, and among them the narrow specialism of the communal +forms does not exist. Each individual works in large measure for itself, +its mental powers remain generalized, and it is not tied down to the +performance of a series of fixed hereditary acts from which escape is +well-nigh impossible.</p> + +<p>Of the social animals, man presents the most complete type, and the one +from which we can<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> best deduce the conditions of the class. A human +community is made up of individuals of many degrees of intellectual +ability, the mass remaining at a low level, the few attaining a high +level. Yet those of high powers of intellect set the standard for the +whole, teach the lower either by precept or example, and aid effectively +in advancing the standard of the community. A rope or chain is said to +be as weak as its weakest part. A human community, on the contrary, may +be said to be as strong as its strongest part. The standing of the whole +is dependent upon the thoughts and acts of the few, from whom the +general mass receive new ideas and gain new habits. The existing +intellectual and industrial position of mankind is very largely a result +of ideas evolved by individuals age after age, and preserved as the +mental property of the whole. Destroy the books and works of art and +industry of any community, cut off its intellectual leaders, remove from +the general mind the results of education, and it would at once fall +back to a low level and be obliged to begin again its slow climb upward. +The intellectual standing of any civilized nation depends upon two +things: the preservation in books, in memory, and in works of art and +industry, of the ideas of ancient workers and thinkers; and the mental +activity of living thinkers and inventors, whose work takes its start +from this standpoint of stored-up thought. Rob any community of all its +basic ideas, and it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span> would quickly retrograde to a primitive condition +of thought and organization, from which it might need many centuries to +emerge.</p> + +<p>It has been said above that man is the highest example of the social +animal. While that is the truth, it is not the whole truth. He is at the +same time the highest example of the communal animal. Mutual aid, +organization into strictly rounded communities, labor for the good of +the whole, is as declared in him as in the most developed community of +the ants, and we admire the work of the latter simply because they +repeat at a lower level the work of man. In truth, in man we have a +splendid example of the existence of the individual initiative in +connection with the communal organization. Specialism exists in a +hundred forms. Some nations have been tied down by it to conditions +almost as fixed as those of the ants. But generalism exists in as full a +measure, new ideas are constantly modifying or replacing the old, and +the communism of man is a progressive one, steadily borne upward on the +wings of new ideas. Individual thought has the fullest swing, and it is +to the system of special reward for useful thought and act that man owes +much of his great advance. On the other hand, reward without useful +service has been one of the leading agencies that have acted to check +human progress.</p> + +<p>The lower animals do not possess the advantage of man in his power of +preserving the thoughts and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span> products of the past as a foundation for +new steps of progress. Memory may aid them to a slight degree, but they +have no special means of recording useful ideas. This cannot fairly be +said of the communal forms, which possess the result of the labors of +former generations as useful object lessons. But in the higher animals +no means exist for the permanent preservation of ideas, and each step of +progress must be due to the direct influence of living individuals and +the indirect result of natural selection.</p> + +<p>This is one cause of the slow mental advance of the lower animals. A +second is the deficiency in educational influences, which have had so +much to do with human progress. Education is not quite wanting in the +brute creation. There are many instances on record of instruction given +by the adults to the young. But this agency is in its embryo stage, and +its influence must be small. Again, each tribe of lower animals is apt +to fall into a fixed circle of life acts, to become so closely adapted +to some situation or condition that any change of habits would be likely +to prove detrimental. This is a state of affairs tending to produce +stagnation and vigorously to check advance. Many instances of this could +be cited from human history, while it is the common condition with the +animals below man.</p> + +<p>To return to the apes, the considerations above taken lead to the +conclusion that it is chiefly, if not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span> solely, to their social habits +that they owe their mental quickness. While only in minor traits +communal, they are eminently social, and have doubtless derived great +advantage from this. The lemurs, which share their habitat and resemble +them in organization, are markedly unsocial, and are as mentally dull as +the apes are mentally quick. Possibly, the thought powers of the apes +once set in train, there may have been something in the exigencies of +arboreal life that quickened their powers of observation; but we are +constrained to believe that the main influence to which they owe their +development is that of social habits, in which they stand at a high, if +not the highest, level among the distinctly social animals.</p> + +<p>The thought capacities of the ape intellect are general, not special. +The mind of these animals remains free and capable of new thought in new +situations. It is fully alive to the needs and dangers of arboreal life, +and advances no farther in its native habitat because there is nothing +more of importance to be learned. But while fixed it is not stagnant. +When the ape is taken from its native woods and put among the many new +conditions arising on shipboard and in human habitations, we quickly +perceive indications of its mental alertness. Its faculties of +observation and imitation are actively exercised, and new habits and +conceptions are quickly gained. Could the apes be made to breed freely +in captivity, so that a domestic race,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> comparable to that of the dogs, +could be obtained, their mental powers might, perhaps, be cultivated to +an extraordinary degree, yielding instances of thought approaching that +of man. The ape is especially notable for its tendency to attempt new +acts of itself, not waiting to be taught, as in the case of other +domesticated animals. In short, it seems by all odds to be the animal +best fitted mentally to serve as the basis of a high intellectual +development, as it is the best fitted physically to change from the +attitude of the quadruped to that of the biped.</p> + +<p>The anthropoid apes in general manifest a reversion from the social +toward the solitary state, this condition reaching its ultimate in the +orang, which is one of the most solitary of animals. The smaller forms +are the most social, the gibbons being decidedly so. There is very good +reason to believe that the man-ape was highly social, if we may judge +from what we find in all races of men, and all grades, from the savage +to the civilized. This animal was thus in a position to avail itself of +all the advantages of the social habit, and to gain the mental +development thence arising. How long ago it was when it left the trees +and made its home upon the ground, it is impossible to say. It may have +been as far back as the early Pliocene or the late Miocene Period, or +even earlier. As yet its brain was probably no more developed than in +the case of the other anthro<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span>poids, perhaps less so than in the existing +species. But in its new habitat it was exposed to a series of novel +conditions that must have exerted a healthful and stimulating influence +upon its mind.</p> + +<p>If it had remained in the trees we should probably to-day have only a +man-ape still. Leaving their safe shelter for the ground, it became +exposed to new dangers and was forced to fit itself to fresh conditions. +Prowling carnivorous animals haunted its new place of residence, and +these it had to avoid by speed or alertness of motion, or combat them by +strength and the use of weapons. The carnivorous tastes which it had in +all probability gained, made it a creature of the chase, pursuing swift +animals, capturing them by fleetness or stratagem, or bringing them down +with the aid of clubs and missiles. Such a new series of duties and +dangers could not fail to exert a vigorous influence upon a brain +already quick of thought and susceptible to fresh impressions, and we +may well conceive that the man-ape then entered upon a new and rapid +phase of mental progress, its brain developing in powers and growing in +dimensions as it slowly became adapted to its new situation and grew +able to cope with fresh demands and critical exigencies.</p> + +<p>There is still another influence which has had its share, perhaps a very +prominent share, in the intellectual development of animals, yet which +no writer seems to have considered from this point of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span> view. The +probable effect of this influence needs to be taken into account, in +conclusion of this section of our subject. It is that of the comparative +agency of the senses in the development of the mind, and the effects +likely to arise from the dominance of some one of the senses.</p> + +<p>In the lowest animals touch was the predominant, if not the only sense, +taste perhaps being associated with it. But these senses, which demand +actual contact with objects, obviously could give none but the narrowest +conception of the conditions of nature. The other senses, sight, +hearing, and smell, give intimations of the existence and conditions of +more or less distant objects, and their development greatly widened the +scope of outreach in animals and must have exerted a powerful influence +upon the growth of mental conditions.</p> + +<p>It need scarcely be said that the sense which gives the fullest and most +extended information about existing things is necessarily the one that +acts most effectively upon the mind, and that this sense is that of +sight. Hearing and smell yield us information concerning certain local +conditions of objects, but sight extends to the limits of the universe, +while in regard to near objects it has the advantage of being +practically instantaneous in action and much fuller in the information +it conveys. Sight, therefore, is evidently the most important of the +senses, so far as the broadening of the mental<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span> powers is concerned, and +any animal in which it is predominant must possess a great advantage in +this respect over those species controlled to any great degree by one of +the lower senses.</p> + +<p>It may be said here that sight only slowly gained dominance in animal +life. Though the eye, as an organ of vision, is found at a low level in +the animate scale, the indications are that it long played a subordinate +part, and has gained its full prominence only in man. During long ages +life was confined to the sea, hosts of beings dwelling in the +semi-obscurity of the under waters, and great numbers at too great a +depth for light to reach them. To vast multitudes of these sight was +partly or completely useless. The same may be said of hearing, the +under-water habitat being nearly or completely a soundless one. The only +one of the higher senses likely to be of general use to these oceanic +forms is that of smell, and it may be that their knowledge of distant +objects was mainly gained through sensitiveness to odors.</p> + +<p>Of invertebrate land animals the same must be said. The land mollusks +and the great order of insects and other land arthropods only to a minor +extent dwell in the open light. Very many species haunt the +semi-obscurity of trees or groves, hide among the grasses, lurk under +bark, sticks, and stones, or dwell through most of their lives +underground. Hosts of others are nocturnal. To only a small percentage +of insects can sight be of any<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> great utility, while hearing seems also +to be of slight importance. Smell is probably the principal sense +through which these animals gain information of distant objects.</p> + +<p>There is existing evidence that the sense of smell in some insects is +remarkably acute. The imprisoned female of certain nocturnal species, +for instance, will attract the males from a comparatively immense +distance, under conditions in which neither sight nor hearing could have +been brought into play. The emission of odors and acute sensibility to +them is the only presumable agency at work in those instances. As +regards the most intelligent of the insects, the ants and the termites, +the former are largely subterranean, the latter not only subterranean, +but blind. In the one case, sight can play only a minor part, in the +other, it plays no part at all. Touch and smell seem to be the dominant +senses in these animals, and the degree of intelligence they display +shows of how high a development these senses are susceptible. Yet the +intelligence arising from them must necessarily be local and limited in +its application; it cannot yield the breadth of information and degree +of mental development possible under the dominance of sight.</p> + +<p>In the vertebrates we find a fully developed and broadly capable organ +of vision, and it might be hastily assumed that in those animals sight +is the dominant sense. But there are numerous facts<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span> which lead to a +different conclusion. Many of the vertebrates are nocturnal, many dwell +in obscure situations, many in the total darkness of caverns, +underground tunnels and excavations, or the ocean's depths. To all these +sight must be of secondary importance. Hearing also can be of no +superior value, and the dominant sense must be that of smell. In the +bats there would appear to be a remarkably acute power of touch, if we +may judge from the facility with which they can avoid obstacles at full +flight after their eyes have been removed.</p> + +<p>It might, however, be supposed that in the higher land vertebrates sight +is predominant, and that the diurnal mammals depend principally upon +their eyes for their knowledge of nature. But there are facts which +throw doubt upon this supposition. These facts are of two kinds, +external and internal. That the quadrupeds, in general, are highly +sensitive to odors is well known, and also that they trust very largely +to the sense of smell. Hunters are abundantly aware of this, and have to +be quite as careful to avoid being smelt by their game as to avoid being +seen. We have abundant evidence of the remarkable acuteness of this +sense in so high an animal as the dog, which can follow its prey for +miles by scent alone, and can distinguish the odors, not only of +different species, but of different individuals, being capable of +following the trail of one person amid the tracks of numerous others.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span>The internal evidence of this fact is equally significant. In the +vertebrates, in general, the olfactory lobe of the brain is largely +developed, much exceeding in size the lobe of the optic nerve. It forms +the anterior portion of the cerebrum, and in many instances constitutes +a large section of that organ, being marked off from it by only a slight +surface depression. If we can fairly judge, then, by anatomical +evidence, the sense of smell plays a very prominent part in the life of +all the lower vertebrates. If we take our domestic animals as an +example, the olfactory lobe of the horse is considerably larger than +that of man, though the brain, as a whole, is very much smaller, so +that, comparatively, this organ constitutes a much larger portion of the +total brain. The other domestic animals yield similar evidence of the +great activity of the sense of smell.</p> + +<p>While there is no doubt that sight is an active sense in all the higher +quadrupeds, it evidently divides this activity with smell to a much +greater degree than is the case with man, in whom smell plays a minor +part, sight a major part, among the organs of sense.</p> + +<p>This fact shows its effect in the comparative mental development of man +and the lower animals. Man, depending so largely on vision, gains the +broadest conception of the conditions of nature, with a consequent great +expansion of the intellect. The quadrupeds, depending to a considerable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span> +degree upon smell for their conceptions of nature, are much narrower in +their range of information and lower in their mental development. As +regards the ape family, it occupies a position between man and the +quadrupeds, and its intellectual activity may well be due in great +measure to an increased trust in sight and a decreased trust in smell in +gaining its conception of nature.</p> + +<p>The question may arise, Why, if sight has this superiority over smell, +did it not long since gain predominance, and relegate smell to a minor +position? It may be answered that the superiority of sight is not +complete. In one particular this sense is inferior to smell. The leading +agency in the development of the sense organs of animals has been the +struggle for existence, including escape from enemies, and the +perception of food-animals or material. In these processes acuteness of +smell plays a very important part. It has, moreover, the advantage of +gathering information from all directions, while sight is very limited +in its range. The eye is so subject to injury that its multiplication +over the body would be rather disadvantageous than otherwise, while, +localized as it is, a movement of the head is necessary to any breadth +of vision, and the whole body must rotate to bring the complete horizon +under observation. It seems evident, from these considerations, that +sight is much inferior to smell in the timely perception of many forms +of danger. Light comes in straight lines<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span> only, and a movement of the +body is necessary to perceive perils lying outside these lines. Odors, +on the contrary, spread in all directions, and make themselves manifest +from the rear as well as the front.</p> + +<p>In all probability this fact has had much to do with the continued +dependence of animals on smell. In fishes and reptiles a full sweep of +vision is so slowly gained that some more active sentinel sense is +requisite to safety. In mammals the head rotates more easily, but +valuable time is lost in the rotation of the whole body. These animals, +therefore, depend on both sight and smell, in some cases equally, in +some more fully on one or the other of these senses. When we reach the +semi-upright ape, we have to do with a form capable of turning the body +and observing the whole surrounding circle of objects more quickly and +readily than any quadruped. As a result, these animals have grown to +depend more fully on vision and less on smell than the quadrupeds. +Finally, in fully erect man, the power of quick turning and alert +observation of the whole circle of the horizon reaches its ultimate, and +in man sight has become in a large degree the dominant sense, and smell +has fallen to a minor place.</p> + +<p>With this change in the relations of the senses has come a change in the +degree of mental development. It is highly probable that the dependence<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span> +of the apes on vision instead of smell has had much to do with their +mental activity, quickness of observation, and active curiosity. In man +there can be no question that it has played a great part in the rapid +development of his intellectual powers, and in the extraordinary breadth +of his conception of nature as compared with that of the lower animals. +While hearing and smell advise us of neighboring conditions only, and +have their chief utility as aids to the preservation of existence, sight +makes us aware of the conditions of nature in remote localities, +extending far beyond the limits of the earth. While this sense plays its +part as one of the protective agencies, it is still more useful as an +agent in the acquisition of knowledge in general, and has much to do +with the development of the intellectual faculties. We may look, +therefore, upon the increasing dominance of the sense of sight as a +leading agency in the making of man as a thinking being, and may ascribe +to this in a considerable measure the thirst for information and faculty +of imitation so marked in the apes.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span></p> + + +<h2><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>VII</h2> + +<h3>THE ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE</h3> + + +<p>One of the characteristics of man, of which we spoke as among those to +which his high development is due, is that of language. There is nothing +that has had more to do with the mental progress of the human race than +facility in the communication of thought, and in this vocal language is +the principal agent and in the fullest measure is the instrument of the +mind. Human speech has, in these modern times, become remarkably +expressive, indicating all the conditions, relations, and qualities, not +only of things, but of thoughts and ideal conceptions. And the utility +of language has been enormously augmented by the development of the arts +of writing and printing. Originally thought could only be communicated +by word of mouth and transmitted by the aid of the memory. Now it can be +recorded and kept indefinitely, so that no useful thought of able +thinkers need be lost, but every valuable idea can be retained as an +educative influence through unnumbered ages.</p> + +<p>In this instrumentality, which has been of such extraordinary value to +man, the lower animals are strikingly deficient. They are not quite +devoid of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> vocal language, though it is doubtful if any of the sounds +made by them have a much higher linguistic office than that of the +interjection. But emotional sounds, to which these belong, are not +destitute of value in conveying intelligence. They embrace cries of +warning, appeals to affection, demands for help, calls for food +supplies, threats, and other indications of passion, fear, or feeling. +And the significance of these vocal sounds to animals may often be +higher than we suppose. That is, they may not be limited to the vague +character of the interjection, but may occasionally convey a specific +meaning, indicative of some object or some action. In other words, they +may advance from the interjection toward the noun or the verb, and +approach in value the verbal root, a sound which embraces a complete +proposition. Thus a cry of warning may be so modulated as to indicate to +the hearer, "Beware, a lion is coming!" or to convey some other specific +warning. We know that accent or tone plays a great part in Chinese +speech, the most primitive of existing forms, a variation in tone quite +changing the meaning of words. The same may be the case with the sounds +uttered by animals to a much greater extent than we suppose.</p> + +<p>We know this to be the case with some of the birds. The common fowl of +our poultry yards has a variety of distinct calls, each understood by +its mates, while special modulations of some call or cry are not +uncommon among birds. The mam<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span>malia are not fluent in vocal powers, +their range of tones being limited, yet they certainly convey definite +information to one another. Recent observers have come to the conclusion +that the apes do, to a certain extent, talk with one another. The +experiments to prove this have not been very satisfactory, yet they seem +to indicate that the woodland cries of the apes possess a certain range +of definite meaning.</p> + +<p>We are utterly ignorant of what powers of speech the man-ape possessed. +It must, in its developed state as a land-dwelling, wandering, and +hunting biped, have needed a wider range of utterance than during its +arboreal residence. It was exposed to new dangers, new exigencies of +life affected it, and its old cries very probably gained new meanings, +or new cries were developed to meet new perils or conditions. In this +way a few root words may have been gained, rising above the value of the +interjection, and expressing some degree of definite meaning, though +still at the bottom of the scale of language, the first stepping stones +from the vague cry toward the significant word.</p> + +<p>Between this stage and that of human language an immense gap supervenes, +a broad abyss which it seems at first sight impossible to bridge. As the +facts stand, however, it has been largely bridged by man himself. Side +by side with the highly intricate languages which now exist, are +various<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span> primitive forms of speech which take us far back toward the +origin of human language. So advanced a people as the Chinese speak a +language practically composed of root words, the higher forms of +expression being attained by simple devices in the combination of these +primitive word forms. The same may be said, in a measure, of ancient +Egyptian speech. We can conceive of an early state of affairs in which +these devices of word compounding were not yet employed, and in which +each word existed as a separate expression, unmodified by association +with any other word. Among the savage races of the earth very crude +forms of language often exist, the methods of associating words into +sentences being of the simplest character, though few surpass the +Chinese in simplicity of system.</p> + +<p>But all this represents an advanced stage of language evolution, a +development of thought and its instrument which has taken thousands of +years to complete. We cannot fairly judge from it what the speech of +primitive man may have been, for in every case there has been a long +process of development; aided, no doubt, in many cases, by educative +influences acting from the more advanced upon the speech of the less +advanced races.</p> + +<p>If we seek to analyze any of these languages, the most intricate as well +as the least advanced, we find ourselves in most instances able to +isolate the root word as the basic element of speech.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span> From this simple +form all the more developed forms seem to have arisen. Take away their +combining devices, and the root words fall apart like so many beads of +speech, each with a defined significance of its own and fully capable of +existing by itself. The Aryan and the Chinese especially offer +themselves to this analytic method. Strip off the suffixes and affixes +from Aryan words, get down to the germinal forms from which these words +have grown, isolate these germs of speech, and we find ourselves in a +language of root forms, each of which has grown vague and wide in +significance as the modifying elements that limited its meaning have +been removed. In the Chinese the problem is a much simpler one. We need +simply to take the existing words out of their place in the sentence and +let them stand alone, and we have root words at first hand. We may go +through the whole range of human speech and, with more or less +difficulty, arrive at a similar result. In short, the evidence seems +conclusive that the language of mankind began in the use of isolated +words of vague and broad significance, and that all the subsequent +development of language consisted in the combination of these words, +with a modification and limitation of their meaning, the families of +speech differing principally in the method of combination devised.</p> + +<p>It must, indeed, be said that in isolating the root forms of modern +languages we reach conditions still<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> far removed from those of primitive +speech. These roots are in a measure packed with meaning. Time has added +to their significance, and they lack the simplicity they probably once +possessed. In particular, they have gained ideal senses, entered in a +measure into that broad language of the mind which has been gradually +added to the language of outer nature. The recognition of the existence +of mind and thought doubtless came somewhat late in human development. +Man long knew only his body and the world that surrounded it. Step by +step only did he discover his mind. And when it became necessary to +speak of mental conditions, no new language was invented, but old words +were broadened to cover the new conditions. The mind is analogous to the +body in its operations, ideas are analogues of things, and it was +usually necessary only to add to the physical significance of words the +corresponding ideal significance. In this way a secondary language +slowly grew up, underlying and subtending the primary language, until +the words invented to express the world of things were employed to +include as vast a world of thoughts.</p> + +<p>In getting down, then, to the language of primitive man we are obliged +to divest the root forms of speech of all this ideal significance, and +confine them to their physical meanings. In dealing with the languages +of the least advanced existing tribes of mankind, indeed, little of this +is requisite. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span> language of the mind with them has not yet begun its +growth or is in its first simple stages. Only half the work of the +evolution of language is completed. There is, indeed, no tribe so +undeveloped as to use the primitive forms of speech. The most savage of +the races of mankind have made some progress in the art of combining +words, gained some ideas of syntax and grammatical forms. Yet in certain +instances the progress has been very slight, and in all we can see the +living traces of the earlier method of speech from which they emerged.</p> + +<p>It is to the ability to think abstractly and to form words with an +abstract significance that human language owes much of its high +development. But this ability is largely confined to civilized mankind, +savages being greatly or wholly lacking in it. This deficiency is +indicated in their modes of speech. Thus a native of the Society +Islands, while able to say "dog's tail," "sheep's tail," etc., has no +separate word for tail. He cannot abstract the general term from its +immediate relations. In the same way the uncivilized Malay has twenty +different words to express striking with various objects, as with thick +or thin wood, a club, the fist, the palm, etc., but he has no word for +"striking" as an isolated thought. We find the same deficiency in the +speech of the American Indians. A Cherokee, for instance, has no word +for "washing," but can express the different kinds of washing by no less +than thirteen distinct words.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span>All this indicates a primitive stage in the evolution of language, one +in which every word had its immediate and local application, while in +each word a whole story was told. The power of dividing thought into its +separate elements was not yet possessed. As thought progressed men got +from the idea of "dog" to that of "dog's tail." They could not think of +the part without the whole. Then they reached a word for "dog's tail +wags." But the idea of "wags" as an abstract motion was beyond their +powers of thought. They could not think of action, but only of some +object in action. The language of the American Indians was an immediate +derivation from this mode of word formation, every proposition, however +intricate it might be, constituting a single word, whose component parts +could not be used separately. The mode of speech here indicated is one +form of development of the root. Other forms are the compounding of the +Chinese and the Mongolian and the inflection of the Aryan and the +Semitic, all pointing directly back to the root form as their unit of +growth.</p> + +<p>The inference to be drawn from all this is that the language of +primitive man consisted of isolated words, sounds which may originally +have been mere cries or calls, but which gradually gained some +definiteness of meaning, as signifying some of the varied conditions of +the outer world. This is the conclusion to which philologists have now +very generally come. The recognition that language<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span> consists of root +words, variously modified and combined, leads back irresistibly to a +period in which those roots had not yet begun to be modified and +combined. The roots are the hard, persistent things in human speech. +Grammatical expedients are the net in which these roots have been caught +and confined. Free them from the net, and it falls to pieces, while the +roots remain intact, the solid and persistent primitive germs of speech.</p> + +<p>Yet in isolating root language as the basis of grammatical language we +go far toward closing the gap between animal and human speech. It is +still, doubtless, of considerable width, yet the distinction is no +longer one of kind, but is simply one of degree. Primitive man had a +much greater scope of language than is possessed by any of the lower +animals, and the vocal sounds used had a clearer and more definite +significance; but their nature was the same. They doubtless began in +calls and cries like those in use by animals, and though these had +increased in number and gained more distinct meanings, the difference in +character was not great. In short, the analytic method employed by +modern philologists has gone far to remove the supposed vast distinction +between brute and human speech, and has traced back the language of man +to a stage in which it is nearly related in character to the language of +animals. The distinction has been brought down to one of degree, +scarcely one of kind. A direct and simple process of evolution<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span> was +alone needed to produce it, and through that evolution man undoubtedly +passed in his progress upward from his ancestral stage.</p> + +<p>The language of the lower animals is a vowel form of speech. It lacks +the consonantal elements, the characteristic of articulation. In this +man seems to have at first agreed with them. The infant begins its vocal +utterances with simple cries; only at a later age does it begin to +articulate. If we may judge from the development of language in the +child, man began to speak with the use of sounds native to the vocal +organs, and progressed by a process of imitation, endeavoring to +reproduce the sounds heard around him: the voices of animals, the sounds +of nature, etc. This tendency to imitate is not peculiar to man. It +exists in many birds, and in some attains a marked development. The +mocking bird, for instance, has an extraordinary flexibility of the +vocal organs and power of imitating the voices of other birds. The +parrot and some other birds go farther in this direction, being capable +of using articulate language and clearly repeating words used by man.</p> + +<p>None of the mammalia possess this facility. It is not found in the apes, +and probably was not possessed by the ancestor of man. But it is not +difficult to believe that in the efforts of the latter to gain a greater +variety of vocal utterance, its organs of speech became more flexible, +and in time it gained the power of articulation.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span>There are races of existing men whose powers of language seem still in +the transition stage between articulate and inarticulate speech. This +seems the case with the Bushmen and Hottentots of South Africa, whose +vocal utterances consist largely of a series of peculiar clicks that are +certainly not articulate speech, though on the road toward it. The +Pygmies of the Central African forests seem similarly to occupy an +intermediate position in the development of language. Those who have +endeavored to talk with them speak of their utterance as being +inarticulate in sound. It appears to be a sort of link between +articulate and inarticulate speech. In short, the great abyss which was +of old thought to lie between the languages of man and the lower animals +has largely vanished through the labors of philologists, and we can +trace stepping-stones over every portion of the wide gap. The language +of man has not alone been evidently a product of evolution, but also one +of development from the vocal utterances of the lower animals; and the +man-ape, in its slow and long progress from brute into man, seems to +have gradually developed that noble instrument of articulate speech +which has had so much to do with subsequent human progress.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span></p> + + +<h2><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a>VIII</h2> + +<h3>HOW THE CHASM WAS BRIDGED</h3> + + +<p>In his bodily formation the man-ape differed little from man. The +differences which existed were probably of a minor character, no greater +than could readily exist within the limits of a species. If this +assertion be questioned, it seems sufficient to call attention to the +recent researches into the anatomy of the anthropoid apes, which differ +in species, if not in genera, from man, yet are closely similar to him +in all their main features of organization. Even in the brain, to whose +great development man owes his superiority, the only marked difference +is in size. Structurally, the distinctions are unimportant. If, then, +these distant relatives so closely resemble man in physical frame, his +immediate relative in the line of descent must have approached him still +more closely in organization. After this ancestor had become a true, +surface-dwelling biped, the differences in structure were probably so +slight that physically the two forms were in effect identical. The +man-ape was, as there is reason to believe, considerably smaller than +man, perhaps about equal in size and stature to the chimpanzee, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span> +that does not constitute a specific difference. There may have been some +differences in the skeletal and muscular structure. The vocal organs, +for instance, probably differed, the evolution of language in man being +accompanied with certain changes in the larynx. The skull was certainly +much more ape-like. Yet variations of this kind, due to differences in +mode of life, are minor in importance, and may easily come within the +limits of a species. While the great features of organization remain +intact, small changes, due to new exigencies of life, may take place +without affecting the zoölogical position of an animal. The most +striking difference between man-ape and man, that of the development of +the brain to two or three times its size and weight, is similarly +unessential in classification while the brain remains unchanged in +structure. That it has remained unchanged we may safely deduce from the +close similarity between the brain of man and those of the existing +anthropoid apes. The cause of the increase in size is so evident that it +need only be referred to. Since the era of the man-ape, almost the whole +sum of the forces of development have been centred in the mental powers +of this animal, with the result that the brain has grown in size and +functional capacity, while the remainder of the body has remained +practically unchanged.</p> + +<p>That man as an animal has descended from the lower life realm, none who +are familiar with the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span> facts of science now think of denying. This has +attained to the scientist, and to many non-scientists, the level of a +self-evident proposition. But that man as a thinking being has descended +from the lower animals is a different matter, concerning which opinion +is by no means in unison. Even among scientists some degree of +difference of opinion exists, and such a radical evolutionist as Alfred +Russell Wallace finds here a yawning gap in the line of descent, and is +inclined to look upon the intellect of man as a direct gift from the +realm of spirits. His explanation, it is true, is more difficult than +the problem itself. There are no facts to sustain it, and even if he +were not able to see how man's mind could be developed by natural +selection, it is a sort of <i>reductio ad absurdum</i> to call in the angels +to bridge the chasm.</p> + +<p>Romanes has dealt with the subject from a different and more scientific +point of view, and seems to have succeeded in showing that man's +intellect at its lowest level is not different in kind from the brute +intellect at its highest level. Controversy on this subject is too apt +to be based on the difference between the intellect of the brute and +that of enlightened man, in disregard of the great mental gap which +exists between the latter and the thought powers of the lowest savage. +In the preceding section an effort was made to show how crude and +imperfect must have been the language of primitive man. Its imperfection +was a fair gauge of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span> that of his powers of thought. His intellect stood +at a very low level, seemingly no further above that of the highest apes +than it was below that of enlightened man.</p> + +<p>In fact, enormous as is the interval between the mind of the brute and +that of the man of modern civilization, the whole long line of mental +development can be traced, with the exception of a comparatively small +interval. This is the gap between the intellect of the anthropoid ape +and that of primitive man, the one important last chapter in the story +of mental evolution. Supernaturalism, driven from its strongholds of the +past, has taken its last stand upon this broken link, claiming that here +the line of descent fails, and that the gap could not have been filled +without a direct inflow of intellect from the world of spirits or an +immediate act of creation from the Deity.</p> + +<p>This view of the case is not likely to be accepted as final. Science has +bridged so many gaps in the kingdom of nature that it is not likely to +retire baffled from this one, but will continue its investigations in +place of accepting conclusions that have not the standing even of +hypothesis, since they are unsupported by a single known fact. At first +sight, indeed, the facts which bear upon this question seem stubborn +things to explain by the evolution theory. The gap in intellect between +the highest apes and the lowest man is a considerable one, which no +existing ape seems likely ever to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span> cross. However the anthropoid apes +gained their degree of mental ability, it does not appear to be on the +increase. They are in a state of mental stagnation and may have remained +so for millions of years. Something similar, indeed, can be said of the +lowest savages. They also are mentally stagnant. The indications are +that for thousands, or tens of thousands, of years in the past their +intellectual progress has been almost nothing. Yet it is beyond +reasonable question that the advanced thinker of to-day has evolved from +an ancestor as low in the mental scale as this savage, probably much +lower; and this renders it very conceivable that a similar process of +evolution covered the interval between the ape intellect and that of +primitive man.</p> + +<p>Somewhere, at some time in the far past, the mental stagnation of man +was broken, and the development of the mind began its long progression +toward enlightenment. This was not in the localities in which the lower +savages are now found, the equatorial forests of Africa and South +America and other realms of savage life, the change in all probability +taking place elsewhere, under new and severe exigencies of life. +Similarly we have much justification in saying that somewhere, at some +time, the mental stagnation of the ape was broken, and the long +development of the mind from ape to man began. This did not take place +in the instances of the existing anthropoids, and, as in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> analogous +case of civilized man, its influencing cause must be looked for in +exigencies of existence acting upon some form different in character and +habitat from these apes.</p> + +<p>The existing anthropoid apes may justly be compared in condition with +the existing low savages. In both cases a satisfactory adaptation to +their situation has been gained. These apes are still arboreal and +frugivorous, as their remote ancestors were. They have for ages been in +a state of close adaptation to their life conditions, and the influences +of development have been largely wanting. Such evolution as took place +must have been extremely slow. In like manner the lowest savages live in +intimate relations with the conditions surrounding them. All problems of +food-getting, habitation, climate, etc., have long since been solved, +and in the tropical forests in which so many of them dwell they are in +thorough accord with the situation. Mentally, therefore, they are +practically at a standstill and have remained so for thousands of years. +The two cases are parallel ones. We can safely say that the later +development of man took place in other situations and under other +conditions. We may fairly say the same in regard to the ape. Vigorous +influences must have been brought to bear upon the ancestor of man as +the instigating causes of its mental development into man; and similarly +vigorous influences must have been brought to bear upon primitive man to +set in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span> train his mental development into intellectual man. And the +general character of these influences in both cases may readily be +pointed out. An extraordinary development has taken place in the human +intellect within a few thousands, or tens of thousands, of years, +yielding the difference which exists between the cultivated man of +to-day and the debased savage who probably preceded him, and whose +counterpart still exists. This has undoubtedly been due to influences of +the highest potency. If we can show that influences of equal potency +acted upon man's ancestor, we shall have done much toward indicating how +the ape brain may have grown into the brain of man.</p> + +<p>In both cases the main agency was in all probability that of conflict. +Both ape and man, as we take it, developed through some form of warfare. +In the former case it was warfare with the animal kingdom; in the latter +it was warfare with the conditions of nature and with hostile man. Each +of these has been potent in its effects, and to each we owe the +completion of a great stage in the evolution of man.</p> + +<p>In the tropics, the home of the anthropoid apes of to-day and, probably, +of the animal we have named the man-ape, war between man and nature +scarcely exists. Nature is not hostile to man. There is no occasion for +clothing and little for habitation. Food is abundant for the sparse +populations. Little exertion is called for to sustain<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span> life. Mental +stagnation is very likely to supervene. Yet there, as elsewhere, +conflict has had much to do with such mental progress as exists. Mastery +in warfare is due to superior mental resources, which gradually arise +from the exigencies of conflict, and manifest themselves in greater +shrewdness or cunning, superior ability in leadership, better +organization, fuller mutual aid, and the invention of more destructive +weapons and more efficient tools. War acts vigorously on men's minds, +peace acts sluggishly. In the former case man's most valued possession, +his life, is in jeopardy, and his utmost powers are exerted for its +preservation. Every resource within his power is brought to bear to save +himself from wounds or death and to destroy his enemies. If the foes are +equal physically, victory is apt to come to those which are superior +mentally, which are quicker at devising new expedients, more alert in +providing against danger, more skilful in the use of weapons, abler in +combining their forces to act in unison. In short, the whole story of +mankind tells us that mental evolution has been greatly aided by the +influences of warfare, the reaction upon the mind of the effort at +self-preservation, the destruction of those at a lower level of +intellectual alertness, the preservation of the abler and more +energetic, the effect of conflict in bringing into activity all the +resources of the intellect, and the hereditary transmission of the +powers of mind thus developed. It<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span> is, undoubtedly, to war between man +and man, and the conflict with the adverse conditions of nature in the +colder regions of the earth, that man's development from his lowest to +his highest intellectual state has been largely due. This is by no means +to say that war is still necessary for this result. Other influences are +now at work, of equal or superior potency, and while the conflict with +nature and the conditions of society is still of importance, war between +man and man is no longer necessary as a mental stimulant. The time was, +and that not very far in the past, when it was an essential element in +human development.</p> + +<p>If we descend to the lowest existing savages, however, it is to find +this agency almost non-existent. We can perceive in them no organized +warfare and no alert conflict with nature. They are as yet at the very +beginning of this stage of evolution, and it certainly exerts little +influence upon them. Nature is not adverse, life needs little thought or +exertion, they accept the world as they find it, without question or +revolt, and their thoughts and habits are as unchangeable as the laws of +the Medes and Persians. But the fact that active warfare does not now +exist among the lowest tribes of mankind, does not argue that such a +state has never existed. In truth, we maintain that primitive man is the +outcome of an active and long-continued warfare, and that his settled +and sluggish condition to-day is the ease that follows<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span> victory. He has +conquered and is at rest after his labors.</p> + +<p>For if we compare primitive man with the anthropoid apes, it is to find +one striking and important difference between them. The anthropoids are +at a level in position with their animal neighbors. Man is lord and +master of the animal kingdom, the dominant being in the world of life. +He has no rival in this lordship, but stands alone in his relation to +the animal kingdom. He is feared and avoided by the largest and +strongest beasts of field and forest. He does not fight defensively, but +offensively, and whatever his relation to his fellow-man, he admits no +equal in the world of life below him. He is the only animal that has +made a struggle for lordship. The gorilla is said to attack the lion and +drive it from its haunts. If it does so, it is not with any desire for +mastery, but simply to rid itself of a dangerous neighbor. The battle +for dominion has been confined to man, and in the winning of it no small +degree of mental development must have taken place.</p> + +<p>The supremacy of man was not gained without a struggle, and that a +severe and protracted one. The animal kingdom did not yield readily to +man's lordship, and the war must have been long and bitter, settled as +the relations now seem. Rest has succeeded victory. The lower animals +are now submissive to man, or retire before him in dread of his strength +and resources, and the strain upon his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span> powers has ceased. So far as +this phase of evolution is concerned the influences aiding the mental +development of man have lost their strength. The warfare is over, and +man reigns supreme over the kingdom of life.</p> + +<p>Of all animals the man-ape was the best adapted for such a struggle. The +other anthropoid apes, while favored by the formation of their hands, +lacked that freedom of the arms to which man mainly owes his success. No +other animal has ever appeared with arms freed from duty in locomotion +and at the same time endued with the power of grasping, and these are +the features of organization to which the evolution of the human +intellect was wholly due in its first stages. The man-ape was not able +to contend successfully with the larger animals by aid of its natural +weapons. Its diminutive size, its lack of tearing claws, and its lesser +powers of speed, left it at a disadvantage, and had it attempted to +conquer by the aid of its strength and the seizing and rending powers of +teeth and nails, its victory over the larger animals would never have +been won. Even with the aid of the cunning and alertness of the apes, +their power of observation, their combination for defence and attack, +and their general mental superiority to the tenants of the animal world, +their supremacy in the event of their becoming carnivorous must have +been confined to the smaller creatures, and could not have been +established over the larger<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span> animals of their native habitat except +through the aid of other than their natural powers.</p> + +<p>It was by the use of artificial weapons that the conquest was gained. +The tendency to use missiles as weapons of offence and defence, which is +shown by various species of monkeys, was in all probability greatly +developed by the man-ape, the only carnivorous member, if our premises +are correct, of the whole extensive family of the apes, and the only one +with the free use of its hands and arms. By the use of weapons of this +kind the powers of offence of this animal were enormously increased. As +skill was acquired in their use, and more efficient weapons were +selected or formed, the man-ape steadily advanced in controlling +influence, and the lower animal world became more and more subordinated. +No doubt the struggle was a protracted one. The previously dominant +animals did not submit without a severe and long-continued contest. +Thousands of years may have passed before the larger animals were +subdued, for it is probable that the invention of superior weapons by an +animal of low mental powers was a very slow process. Each stage of +invention gave higher success, but these stages were very deliberate +ones.</p> + +<p>However this be, we can be assured that the superiority of the ancestral +man lay in his mental resources, and that his victory was due to the +employment of his mind rather than of his body. As a result, the +developing influence of the conflict<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span> was exerted upon his brain, the +organ of the mind, far more than upon his physical frame, and this organ +gradually increased in size, while the body as a whole remained +practically unchanged. The conflict began with the man-ape on a level in +power and dominance with animals of its own size and inferior to those +of greater size and strength. It ended with man dominant over all the +lower animals. Such a progress, if made by any animal through variation +in physical structure, must have caused radical and extraordinary +changes in size, strength, and utility of the natural organs of offence. +If made, as in the instance in question, through development of the +organ of the mind alone, it could pot but have produced a great increase +in the size and power of this organ; and the dimensions of the brain in +primitive man, as compared with those of the brain in the anthropoid +apes, do not seem too great for the magnitude of the result.</p> + +<p>The conflict ended, a new animal, man, finally and fully emerged from +the family of the apes and settled down in the restful consciousness of +victory, with a much larger brain and greatly superior mental powers +than were possessed at the beginning of the struggle, yet in physical +aspect not greatly changed from his ancestral form after it had first +fully gained the erect attitude. The powers gained enabled early man +easily to hold the position he had won, and there was no further<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span> +special strain upon his faculties until a new contest began, that +between man and nature, supplemented by a still more vital struggle, +that between man and man.</p> + +<p>To return to the point from which we set out, it may be said that, as +the man-ape gained facility in walking in the erect attitude, and its +hands and arms became fully adapted to the use of weapons, its standing +in the animal kingdom changed essentially from that before held. Fear +and flight ended, retreat ceased, attack began, pursuit succeeded +flight, and the great battle for mastery entered upon its long course. +An element which aided materially in the victory was the social habit of +the animal in question, and the mutual aid which the members of any +group gave one another. Educative influences also naturally follow +association, every invention or improvement devised by one becomes the +property of the whole, and nothing of importance once gained is lost.</p> + +<p>The stages of this progress were, undoubtedly, in their outer aspect, +stages of improvement in weapons. We seem to see ancestral man, in his +early career as a carnivorous animal, seizing the stones and sticks that +came readily to hand, and flinging them with some little skill at his +prey, in the same manner as we can perceive the baboon doing the same +thing. In like manner we observe him breaking off branches from the +trees and using them as clubs. One of the first steps of develop<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span>ment +from this crude stage in the use of weapons would be the selection of +stones suited by size and shape for throwing, and the choice of clubs of +suitable length and thickness, the latter being stripped of their twigs.</p> + +<p>For a long time fresh weapons, those immediately at hand, would be +seized and used for every new conflict; but as the idea of the +superiority of some weapons to others arose, a second stage of evolution +must have begun. The selected club, broken from the tree and prepared +for use with some care, and thus embodying a degree of choice and labor, +would be too valuable to fling idly away, and might be retained for +future use, the first personal possession of inchoate man. Similarly, +stones carefully chosen for their suitability for throwing would be +probably kept, and a small store of them collected. In short, we may +conceive of the man-ape thus gathering a magazine of weapons,—clubs and +stones,—sought or shaped during hours of leisure for use in hours of +conflict. In this way our animal ancestor doubtless slowly became a +skilful hunter, carrying his weapons with him in the chase, and using +them efficiently in the conquest of prey.</p> + +<p>A third stage in this progress was reached when to some wise-headed old +man-ape came the idea of combining the two forms of weapon in use, of +fastening in some way the stone to the club in order that a more +effective blow might be struck.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span> The vegetable kingdom furnishes natural +cords, flat stones with more or less cutting edges could be chosen and +bound to the end of the club, and the earliest form of the battle-axe +would be produced. With its formation the man-ape made another important +step of progress and added greatly to his powers of offence. Stage by +stage he was bringing his animal competitors under his control.</p> + +<p>The formation of an axe or hatchet, however crude it may have been, +would naturally lead to another step in advance. With it the ancestral +man had passed beyond the possession of a weapon into the possession of +a tool. The shaping of his clubs previously had been done by a rude +tearing or hammering off of their twigs. These could now be cut off, and +in addition the club might be wrought into a better shape. Manufacture +had begun. Our ancestor stood at one end of a long line, at the other +end of which we behold the steam-engine, the electric motor, and an +interminable variety of other instruments.</p> + +<p>Primitive manufacture was not confined to the shaping of wood. The +shaping of stone followed in due time. If a tree branch could be made +more suitable for its purpose by cutting it into shape with a rude stone +axe or hatchet, a stone of better shape might be obtained by hammering. +Doubtless the chipping effect of striking stone upon stone had been +often observed before the idea arose that this could be made useful, and +that where stones of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span> desired shape were not to be found, the shape +of those at hand might in this way be improved.</p> + +<p>If we seek for some turning-point, some stage of progress, in which the +man-ape fairly emerged into man, perhaps it would be well to select that +which we have now reached, that in which the animal in question, which +had hitherto used the objects of nature in their natural form, first +gained the idea of manufacture and began to shape these objects by the +use of tools. In truth, the dividing line between man-ape and man was +imperceptibly fine. Various points of demarcation might be chosen, each +founded on some important step in evolution. But among them all that in +which the effort to convert the objects of nature into better weapons by +the use of tools is perhaps the best, as it was probably the first step +in that long process of manufacture to which man owes his wonderful +advance.</p> + +<p>With this early effort at manufacture, man had reached a stage in which +he was first able to make a permanent record of his existence upon the +earth—aside from that of the very infrequent preservation of his bones +as fossil remains. A chipped stone is a permanent object. Even a very +rudely shaped one bears some indications of its origin upon its surface, +some marks pointing back to man in his early days. Unfortunately for +anthropologists, natural agencies sometimes produce effects resembling +those achieved by man's hands,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span> and some degree of skill in manufacture +and well-marked design is necessary before one can be sure that a +seeming stone weapon has not been shaped by nature instead of man. +Within a recent period research for the evidence of early man in the +shape of chipped stones has been diligently made, with an abundance of +undoubted and a number of doubtful results. Some of these reach very far +back in time, and if actually the work of man he must have lived upon +the earth as a manufacturing animal for years that may be numbered by +the million. Seemingly chipped stones have been found that belong to the +remote Miocene geological age. With the latter are some scratches upon +bones that also seem the work of tools. But these Miocene relics are +questionable. They do not seem to surpass the shaping power of nature +herself. Unless some more indubitable relics are found, we must place +the advent of man as a tool-using animal at a much later date. How far +back he may have existed as a man-like biped is another question, which +we are not likely soon to solve.</p> + +<p>It is scarcely necessary to pursue this branch of our subject farther. +We have reached one end of a line of development, the succeeding course +of which is well known. From the earliest rudely chipped stones and +flints that are certainly the work of man, we can easily trace his +progress upward through better examples of the chipped and later through +those of the polished stone imple<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span>ment, until the age of metal began. +And with these stones have been found many other indications of the +progressing powers of man, in the shaping of bone, the invention and use +of a considerable variety of implements and ornaments, and the earliest +efforts of art, as stated in a preceding section. There is no occasion +to go into the detail of these steps of progress. When they are reached, +this section of our work ends. We are concerned here simply with man's +ancestor and man in his earliest stage of existence, not with man in his +later course of development.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span></p> + + +<h2><a name="IX" id="IX"></a>IX</h2> + +<h3>THE FIRST STAGE OF HUMAN EVOLUTION</h3> + + +<p>The question has often been asked, if man has descended from an ape +ancestor why is it that no traces of this ancestral form have been found +in a fossil state? If man has gone through such an extended course of +development, why has he left no remains? This question, looked upon as +unanswerable by many of those who ask it, is really of minor importance. +A half-dozen answers, each of considerable weight, could easily be made +to it. In the first place, it may be said that the absence of remains +referred to is far from a single instance, but one out of thousands. It +is generally admitted that the species of animals found fossil are very +far from representing all the species that have existed upon the earth, +and probably form but a minute percentage of them. In the second place, +the remains of man's ancestor have not been sought for in its native +locality, the tropical regions. In the third place, man belongs to the +class of animals least likely to be preserved in the fossil state, since +they dwell in the depths of forests and at a distance from the lakes and +streams in whose muddy bottoms the remains of so many<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span> animals have been +fossilized. Another answer is, that of the various species of anthropoid +apes that probably existed in the past, a few relics only of a single +species have been found. If there were this one species alone, its +number of individuals must have reached into the millions, yet of those +hosts only a few fugitive bones are known to exist. There could not well +be a more striking instance of the imperfection of the geological +record. The sparse remains of Dryopithecus, the species in question, +with some few other fossils of doubtfully anthropoid species, save us +from a total blank, and open the vista to a myriad of active arboreal +creatures which had their dwelling-place in the old-time European +forests, but have almost utterly vanished from human knowledge.</p> + +<p>These are not the only answers that can be made to the question +propounded. Though the bones of the man-ape have not been found, relics +of several stages of developing man exist. Most significant among these, +until recently, was the celebrated Neanderthal skull, which in facial +aspect departs widely from the ordinary human and approaches the simian +type. More significant still is the Pithecanthropus cranium, indicative +of an animal that stood midway between man and ape, a creature fully +erect in posture, as its thigh bone proves, but with a brain that had +attained but the halfway stage of development. In this notable find we +seem to see man in the making, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span> body already fully man-like, the +brain advanced much beyond the stage of the ape intellect, but still far +below that of man. It is the remnant of a creature significantly on the +dividing line between man-ape and man.</p> + +<p>So much for the response to the question as hitherto made. As the case +stands, we are not obliged to stop at this point. Within the latter +section of the nineteenth century discoveries have been made which fit +in admirably with our argument. Rediscoveries, perhaps, we should call +them, for they were imperfectly known in ancient times, but only +recently have they fairly come within human ken. We refer to the Pygmy +tribes of the African forests, not definitely offered hitherto as aids +to the elucidation of this problem, yet which seem to adapt themselves +closely to it, and certainly help essentially in filling the gap between +civilized man and his ape-like ancestor.</p> + +<p>We have already said that there appear to have been two separate and +distinct stages in the evolution of man: one, that of his conflict with +the animal world, ending in his mastery of the brute creation; the +second that of his conflict with nature, ending in his mastery of the +resources of the earth. Overlapping and succeeding the second there has +been a third, that of the conflict of man with man, ending in the +survival of the fittest of the human race. In the discussion of this +problem, as hitherto made, these distinct stages of evolution,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span> with +their intermediate resting stages, have not been recognized; argument +being based on man as a whole, and no thought directed to the +possibility that existing man may represent several separate processes +of development, with broad lapses between. The argument we propose to +offer is that man as he was at the completion of his first stage, that +of the subjugation of the animal world, and before the beginning of the +conflict with nature, still exists, the first derivation from the +man-ape, living in the location and possessing much of the appearance +and many of the habits of this ancestral form.</p> + +<p>Late travellers in Africa have found more than trees and streams in the +forest depths. They have found there a distinct and peculiar race of +men, negro-like in many particulars, yet differing from the negroes in +others, and specially marked by their dwarfish stature, which is +indicated in the name of Pygmies, usually given them. These diminutive +beings were known as long ago as the days of Homer, and their legendary +combats with the cranes are spoken of by him in his poems. He was not +aware of what is known now, that these +<a name="corr1" id="corr1"></a><a class="correction" href="#cn1" title="changed from 'forests'">forest</a> +dwarfs would disdain the +cranes as antagonists, and are quite capable of overcoming the lordly +elephant. In truth, they know no equals in the forest, and, while +destitute of any knowledge of agriculture, are the most skilful, +considering the primitive character of their weapons, of the hunters of +the earth.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span>The forest is the home of the Pygmy, as in all probability it was of the +man-ape. He dwells in its deepest recesses, its moist and sultry depths, +and pines when removed from his native realm in the heart of the tropic +woods. In truth, he is almost as fully arboreal as was his tree-dwelling +ancestor and as are his forest relatives, the anthropoid apes of to-day; +not inhabiting the limbs of trees, indeed, but living under their shade, +and forming the true man of the woodland, the nomad hunters of the vast +equatorial forests. It must be said, however, that this is not wholly +the case. There are tribes seemingly belonging to this race in South +Africa who dwell in the open desert, but retain there, in great measure, +the habits of their forest kin.</p> + +<p>The first of modern travellers to see the Pygmies was Du Chaillu, in his +journey through the African woodlands in 1867. He describes them as +averaging four feet seven inches in height, their complexion of a pale +yellow brown, the hair of their head short, but their bodies covered +with a thick growth of hair, as if the loss of their ancestral covering +had not been completed. The tribe seen by him was known as the Obongo, +and dwelt in Ashango Land, occupying the forest region between the +Gaboon and the Congo.</p> + +<p>Dr. Schweinfurth, whose exploration extended from 1868 to 1870, was the +next to meet these nomads of the forests, of whom he has given an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span> +interesting description in his "Heart of Africa." He met with them in +the country of the Manbuttoo, on the Welle River, between three degrees +and four degrees north latitude. The tribe seen by him, known as the +Akka, was made up of very diminutive individuals, none being over four +feet ten inches high, and some only four feet. Their bodies were in due +proportion to their height, so that they resembled half-grown boys in +size.</p> + +<p>The Akkas, as described by him, have large heads, huge ears, and very +prognathous faces. Their arms are long and lank, the chest flat and +narrow, widening below to support a huge hanging abdomen, the legs short +and bandy, and the walk a waddling motion, there being a sort of lurch +with each step. In this latter respect they recall the gibbon in its +effort to walk. The gaping aspect of the mouth has a suggestive +resemblance to that of the ape. They are also ape-like in their +incessant play of countenance, twitching of eyebrows, rapid gestures of +hands and feet, nodding and wagging of the head, and remarkable agility. +Their skin is of a dull brown color, "like partly roasted coffee," and +destitute of the covering of hair seen by Du Chaillu on the Obongos. The +hair of the head and the beard is scanty and of woolly texture.</p> + +<p>Stanley, who frequently met those forest dwarfs in his expedition for +the relief of Emin Pacha, gives much information concerning them in his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span> +"In Darkest Africa." He found, indeed, two types of dwarfs, one the +Wambutti, who were of attractive aspect, having large, round eyes, full +and prominent round faces with broad foreheads, jaws slightly +prognathous, hands and feet small, figures well formed though +diminutive, and complexion of a brick red hue. The other type, the Akka, +he describes as having "small, cunning, monkey eyes, close and deeply +set." One woman described by him had "protruding lips overhanging her +chin, a prominent abdomen, narrow flat chest, sloping shoulders, long +arms, feet strongly turned inward, and very short lower legs." She was +"certainly deserving of being classed as an extremely low, degraded, +almost a bestial type of a human being." The language of the Akka is of +a very undeveloped type, and seems a link between articulate and +inarticulate speech.</p> + +<p>Stanley, in his journey down the Congo, heard many stories of the forest +dwarfs, who were described to him as a yard high, with long beards and +large heads. Other traditional accounts of them similarly speak of their +long beards, though Stanley saw none answering to this description. The +first individual seen by him in this journey was four feet six and a +half inches high, and measured thirty inches round the chest. He was of +a light chocolate color, with a thin fringe of whiskers, his legs bowed +and with thin shanks, the calf being undeveloped. His body was covered +with a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span> thick, fur-like hair, nearly half an inch long, in this respect +agreeing with those described by Du Chaillu.</p> + +<p>The Batwas, seen and measured by Dr. Ludwig Wolfe in the middle Congo +basin in 1886, were of an average height of four feet three inches. They +resemble the Akka in general appearance, and have longish heads, long +narrow faces, and small reddish eyes. They bounded through the tall +herbage "like grasshoppers" and were remarkably agile in climbing.</p> + +<p>For several years past there have been rumors of a race of Pygmies in +the interior of the Cameroons, but these reports were not verified until +the year 1898, when the Bulu expedition of the German military force +succeeded, with much difficulty, in seeing several individuals of this +race, secured through the aid of a native chief. One woman was measured +and proved to be just four feet high. The color was from chocolate-brown +to copperish, except the palms, which were of a yellowish white. The +hair was deep black, thick, and frizzled; the skull broad and high; the +lips full and swollen. Like other Pygmy tribes, these are very shy, +wandering from place to place in the forest, and avoiding frequented +routes of travel. They are skilful hunters and collect much rubber, +which they dispose of to the negro tribes.</p> + +<p>In the same year Mr. Albert B. Lloyd made a journey in Central Africa, +following Stanley's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span> route down the Congo. He was alone, with the +exception of a few carriers, and had the good fortune of passing through +the country of the Pygmies and that of the cannibals of the Aruwimi +without conflict or injury, entering into cordial relations with both +peoples. He journeyed for three weeks in the Pygmy forest and had +excellent opportunities for examining its inhabitants.</p> + +<p>After entering the great primeval forest Mr. Lloyd went west for five +days without the sight of a Pygmy. Suddenly he became aware of their +presence by mysterious movements among the trees, which he at first +attributed to the monkeys. Finally he came to a clearing and stopped at +an Arab village, where he met a great number of the diminutive nomads. +"They told me," says Mr. Lloyd, "that, unknown to me, they had been +watching me for five days, peering through the growth of the forest. +They appeared very much frightened, and even when speaking covered their +faces. I asked a chief to allow me to photograph the dwarfs, and he +brought a dozen together. I was able to secure a snap-shot, but did not +succeed in the time exposure, as the Pygmies would not stand still. Then +I tried to measure them, and found not one over four feet in height. All +were fully developed, the women somewhat slighter than the men. I was +amazed at their sturdiness. The men have long beards, reaching halfway +down the chest. They are very timid, and will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span> not look a stranger in +the face, their bead-like eyes constantly shifting. They are, it struck +me, fairly intelligent. I had a long talk with a chief, who conversed +intelligently about their customs in the forest and the number of the +tribesmen. Both men and women, except for a tiny strip of bark, were +quite nude. The men were armed with poisoned arrows. The chief told me +the tribes were nomadic, and never slept two nights in the same place. +They just huddle together in hastily thrown-up huts. Memories of a white +traveller,—Mr. Stanley, of course,—who crossed the forest years ago, +still linger among them."</p> + +<p>The discovery of these forest Pygmies has directed attention to the +Bushmen of South Africa, a desert-dwelling race, long known though +comparatively little regarded in their ethnological significance. They +are now by many regarded as an outlying branch of the forest Pygmies, +the chief difference being in the shape of the skull, which is rather +long in the Bushmen, rather short in the Pygmies. These degraded +wanderers inhabit an area extending from the inner ranges of the +mountains of Cape Colony, through the central Kalahari desert, to near +Lake Ngami, and thence northwestward to the Ovambo River. Into these, +the most barren portions of the South African deserts, they have been +driven by the encroachments of Kaffirs, Hottentots, and Europeans.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span>They closely resemble the Akka tribes of the north, averaging about four +and a half feet in height, and possessing deep-set, crafty eyes, small +and depressed nose, and a generally repulsive countenance. Their +complexion is of a dirty yellow. Their hair grows in small, woolly +tufts. In the vicinity of Lake Ngami, Livingstone found them to be of +larger stature and darker color, while Baines measured some in this +region who were five feet six inches in height. In disposition the +Bushmen are strikingly wild, malicious, and intractable, while their +cerebral development is classed by Humboldt as belonging to almost the +lowest class of the human species.</p> + +<p>Close in affinity with the Bushmen, and in various respects unlike the +dark races around them, are the Hottentots, the original inhabitants of +Cape Colony, a race of herdsmen who are much superior in culture to the +degraded desert nomads. They are not dwarfish, being of medium stature, +but they resemble the Bushmen in complexion, in which and in general +cast of features they present some similarity to the Chinese. Their +hair, like that of the Bushmen, grows in tufts, with spaces between, and +they are like them in language, their method of speech consisting +largely in a series of clicking sounds. Their manner of talking has been +compared to the clucking of a hen, and by the Dutch to the "gobbling of +a turkeycock." The Hottentots present every appearance<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span> of being a +developed branch of the Pygmy family, or the result of a cross between +Bushmen and negroes.</p> + +<p>These tribes of dwarfs, now extended throughout the equatorial forests +and over the South African deserts, were probably once far more +widespread, inhabiting much of the continent and reaching as far as +Madagascar, where a branch of them, known as Kinios or Quinias, are +thought still to exist. They extended north to the Mediterranean, and +have left their representatives in Morocco in a tribe of dwarfs, about +four feet high, who differ widely in appearance from all other people of +that country. As to their origin, there is a diversity of opinion. Some +anthropologists look upon them as a primeval race, distinct from the +negroes, who came among them later. Professor Virchow, on the contrary, +is of the opinion that their only important difference from the negroes +is that of size, and regards them as the remains of a primitive +population from whom the negroes have descended.</p> + +<p>In a preceding section a statement was made as to what was the probable +general appearance of the man-ape. It was based upon the physical aspect +of the Pygmies, whom we hold to form the immediate derivative of man's +ape ancestor, and to have made no radical change in personal appearance, +if we may judge from the various ape-like characteristics which they +still present.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span> Mentally they have made a very considerable advance, and +have reached the stage of men of low intellectual powers; but while +their brains have been growing their bodies have not greatly changed, +and the marks of their origin are thick upon them. There has probably +been little change in size, the diminutive stature and small bodily +dimensions being in accord with their incessant activity, while the +difficulties of traversing the thick growth of the tropical forest may +have helped to keep them small. As it is, they are of about half the +size of civilized man, the weight of a full grown adult male being +probably not over ninety pounds.</p> + +<p>Taking the Pygmies as a whole, it may be said that, though many of the +Akkas are disproportionate in shape and tottering in gait, on the whole +these people are well made, their protuberant paunch being probably a +result of their habits of eating. Captain Guy Burrows says that a Pygmy +will eat twice as much as would suffice a full-grown man, and that one +of them will devour a whole stalk of bananas at a meal, with other food. +Some tribes are described as physically and mentally degenerate, and +prognathism is in many cases strongly declared, the lower part of the +face having an ape-like contour, and the protruding chin, that feature +peculiar to man, being very deficient. In their great abdominal +development the adult Akkas resemble the children of Arabs and negroes. +This, therefore, seems the retention of a primitive feature<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span> which has +become a passing characteristic in the more advanced types of mankind.</p> + +<p>The Pygmies are not destitute of intelligence, and are capable of +receiving some of the elements of education. Two of them were brought to +Italy about 1875, who within two years' time learned to read and write +and to speak Italian with much fluency. They showed themselves superior +in school studies to European children of ten or twelve years of age, +and one of them became somewhat proficient in music. In their habits +they resembled children, being sensitive and impulsive, fond of play, +and very quick in their motions. Their readiness in gaining the elements +of education is in accord with experience in the case of other savages. +It is when studies requiring abstruse thought are reached that the +facility in acquisition of the savage races comes to an end.</p> + +<p>With this consideration of the characteristics and habitat of the +Pygmies we may proceed to a review of their habits. The weapons which +they seem to have developed during their long upward progress, and to +which their supremacy over the wild beasts of the forest is probably +due, consist of two, the bow and arrow and the spear. The bow and arrow +are small and insignificant in appearance, and would be of little value +but for the poison which the Pygmies have somehow learned how to obtain, +and which makes them dreaded, not only by beasts, but by men. Wherever +found, from the deserts of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span> the south to the forest of the Welle and +Aruwimi on the north, the poisoned arrow is a mark of affinity as +decided in its way as their physical resemblance. Its wide distribution +goes to indicate that it was the general weapon of the Pygmies ages ago, +when, presumably, they had all Africa for their own, and ruled supreme +over the animal world in that continent.</p> + +<p>It is true, indeed, that the use of the poisoned arrow is not peculiar +to them, but is a somewhat common possession of savage tribes in all +parts of the earth. This makes it quite possible that it was not +original with the Pygmies, but was derived by them from other tribes. On +the other hand, in view of its great value in giving them supremacy over +the lower animals, it may well have been a primeval Pygmy invention, and +these tribes the original source of its existing wide distribution.</p> + +<p>They possess more than one poison; one being a dark substance of the +color and consistence of pitch, which is supposed to be made out of a +species of arum. It is laid in the splints of their wooden arrows, or +spread thickly upon their iron arrowheads, when they possess these. +Another poison is of a pale glue color, which is supposed by Stanley to +be made of crushed red ants. When fresh these poisons are deadly, +producing excessive faintness, palpitation of the heart, nausea, and +deep pallor, soon followed by death. In Stanley's experience one man +died within a minute, from a mere<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span> pin prick in the breast. Others lived +during different intervals, extending up to one hundred hours. The +difference in virulence seems to have depended on the degree of +freshness of the venom, which apparently lost its strength as it became +dry.</p> + +<p>The possession of a weapon so deadly as this, together with the agility +and daring and the unerring marksmanship of the forest dwarfs, seem +sufficient to give them absolute control of the animals of the African +wilds. The lion, the elephant, and the buffalo, the largest and fiercest +of the beasts of field and forest, are powerless before the virulent +venom of the arrows of the Pygmies, and doubtless for ages they have +held dominion as the fearless rulers of wood and wild. Captain Burrows +says of the skill with the bow of the Pygmy that "he will shoot three or +four arrows, one after the other, with such rapidity that the last will +have left the bow before the first has reached its goal."</p> + +<p>The bow and spear are not their only means of obtaining food. They have +certain of the arts of the trapper, perhaps original with them, perhaps +borrowed from their larger neighbors. They sink pits in the pathways of +their game, covering them with light sticks and leaves and sprinkling +earth over the whole. They build hut-like structures, and lay nuts or +plantains beneath, for the purpose of tempting chimpanzees, baboons, or +other apes. A slight movement causes the hut to fall on the incautious +animals. Bow traps are placed along<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span> the tracks of civets, ichneumons, +and rodents, which snap and strangle them. The Pygmies do not hesitate +to attack the elephant, spearing it from beneath, and hunting it for its +ivory, which they trade with the settled tribes. In short, they are of +unsurpassed agility, and are the best of woodsmen and hunters, their +skill being taken advantage of by the settled tribes, who trade with +them vegetables, tobacco, spears, knives, and arrows for meat, honey, +the feathers of birds, the ivory of the elephant, and other forest +spoil. So destructive are they of game that they would soon denude the +surrounding forest if they stayed long in one spot, so that they are +compelled to move frequently. Schweinfurth speaks of them as cruel and +fond of tormenting animals.</p> + +<p>They serve the settled natives in other ways, acting as scouts and +informing them of the coming of strangers while still distant. Every +forest road runs through their camps, their villages command every +crossway, and no movement can take place in the forest without their +knowledge, while they are +<a name="corr2" id="corr2"></a><a class="correction" href="#cn2" title="changed from 'adepts'">adept</a> +in the art of concealment.</p> + +<p>The superior woodcraft, the malicious disposition, and the poisoned +arrows and good marksmanship of these forest folks make them formidable +enemies, and the settled tribes hold them in dread and are glad to keep +on good terms with them. Yet they find them much of a nuisance, since +their dwarfish neighbors claim free access to their gar<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span>dens and +plantain fields, where they help themselves to fruit in return for small +supplies of meat and furs. In short, they are human parasites on the +larger natives, who suffer from their extortions, yet fear to provoke +their enmity. Burrows says that they will never steal, but that they pay +very inadequately for the plantains they take, leaving a very small +package of meat in return for an ample supply of food.</p> + +<p>The Pygmies build their camps two or three miles away from the negro +villages, living in groups of sixty to eighty families. A large clearing +may have eight to twelve of these Pygmy camps around it, with perhaps +two thousand inmates. Their dwellings are of the shape of an oval cut +lengthwise, and are built in a rude circle, the residence of the chief +occupying the centre. The doors are two or three feet high. On every +track leading to the camp, at about one hundred yards' distance, is a +sentry house large enough to hold two of the little folks, its doorway +looking up the track from the camp. While wandering in the forest they +build the flimsiest of leaf shelters.</p> + +<p>The intelligence of the Pygmies is of a very low order. In the arts +which they have been developing for ages they are experts, they are +thoroughly familiar with the habits of animals, and as hunters they are +unsurpassed. But in intellect they are decidedly lacking. They are +destitute of agriculture, possess no animals except a few dogs, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span> +have none of the elements of culture. The Bushmen, for instance, can +count only up to two; all beyond that is "many." Yet this low tribe of +desert nomads is, as we have said, skilled in the art of drawing, its +sketches of men and animals being widely distributed through Cape +Colony.</p> + +<p>The Pygmies seem greatly lacking in the social sentiments. Burrows, in +his "Land of the Pygmies," says that they do not possess even the most +ordinary ties of family affection. Such common and natural feelings of +affinity as those between mother and son, brother and sister, etc., +seemed to be wanting in them.</p> + +<p>It is a fact of great interest that the Pygmy race does not seem +confined to Africa, for tribes of men resembling the Pygmies in stature +and in various other particulars are found in widely removed localities, +as in Malacca, the Andaman Islands, and the Philippine Archipelago, +while there are indications that they once spread widely over this +island region of the earth. Those of the Philippines, known as Negritos +or Aetas, have been somewhat closely observed and may be briefly +described.</p> + +<p>The Negritos are similar in stature to the Pygmies of Africa, the men +averaging four feet eight inches high, and they are like them in general +appearance. They are darker in complexion, some being as sable as +negroes, and all of them darker than the African Pygmies. Their features +are coarse and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span> ill-shaped, their nose depressed, lips full, hair black +and frizzled. In body, like the Pygmies, they are thin and +spindle-legged. The calf of the leg is not developed in any of these +dwarfish people. The Negritos possess one marked and significant +characteristic,—the separation of the great toe. This, while it has not +the full power of movement shown in the apes, is much more separated +from the others than in the whites, and can be readily used in grasping. +By its aid the Negrito can not only pick up small objects, but can +descend the rigging of a ship head downward, holding on like a monkey by +his toes. It may be said that among uncivilized and barefoot people the +great toe is usually very mobile. The artisans of Bengal can weave, the +Chinese boatmen can row, with its aid, and it adds much to facility in +climbing.</p> + +<p>The Negritos wear little clothing, have no fixed abodes, and pass a +wandering life in the forests, living on game, honey, wild fruits, roots +of the arum, and other forest food. Their weapons consist of a bamboo +lance, a bow of palm wood, and a quiver of poisoned arrows. It is +certainly a striking fact that, wherever found, from South Africa to the +Far East, the Pygmy tribes possess the art of poisoning their weapons. +This art is not practised by the surrounding peoples, and is the +strongest evidence of a community of origin. It seems to point back to a +remote period when the Pygmy peoples spread far through the tropics<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span> of +the Eastern hemisphere, though in the region now under consideration +they have almost vanished through the assaults of the Malays.</p> + +<p>The Negritos are very alert physically, being remarkably fleet of foot, +while they can climb like monkeys. They live in groups of about fifty +families, shelter being obtained by a simple erection of sloping poles +and leaves, though in their more settled locations they built bamboo +huts like those of the Malays. They are a short-lived race, seldom +living more than forty years. Mentally, they are stupid and apparently +incapable of improvement, seeming to stand at the foot of the human +scale. Attempts to instruct them have been made, but all proved +failures. Efforts to make agriculturists of them have proved similarly +futile. They are hereditarily hunters, and hunters they are likely to +remain.</p> + +<p>The only Eastern locality of which the Pygmy race remained in full +possession until recent times is that of the Andaman Islands. This is no +longer the case. Great Britain made a penal settlement of these islands +after the mutiny in India, and as a consequence the Mincopies, as their +native inhabitants are called, have begun to disappear. These islanders +are rather taller than the Philippine Negritos, ranging from four and a +half to five feet in height, but otherwise there is a somewhat close +resemblance between them. Their color is dark brown or black, their hair +woolly, and inclined to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span> grow in tufts, like that of the Bushmen. The +head, though large in proportion to the body, is really very small and +of low cranial capacity. That of the men is only 1244 cubic centimetres, +as contrasted with 1554 cubic centimetres of a large number of male +Parisians measured by Broca. That of the women differs in the same +proportion. Flower says that the Mincopies rank lowest among the human +races in this respect; but it must be remembered that the brain usually +decreases in size with decrease in stature.</p> + +<p>Small as these islanders are, however, their strength is relatively +great. They use with ease bows which the strongest English sailors +cannot string, though practice may have much to do with this facility. +And they can send arrows with a force that seems out of accord with +their size. Their agility is remarkable. Travellers speak of the speed +of the bullet in describing their running—doubtless with some +exaggeration. Their senses are strikingly acute. It is said that they +can distinguish fruits by their odor when hidden in the foliage of the +jungle, and have wonderful powers of sight and hearing. As in the case +of the Aetas, their life is short, though the age of puberty is nearly +as great as with us. Fifty is extreme old age with these people, and +twenty-two is said to be their average length of life.</p> + +<p>Mentally, they are at a low level, the lowest, in the opinion of Owen, +among the races of mankind.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span> In counting they have words for only one +and two, but can count up to ten by touching the nose with each of the +fingers in succession, saying each time, "this one also." Their language +is of a primitive type, and in various respects they manifest low +intelligence. Yet, as in the case of the Akkas mentioned, they can be +taught to the level of other children of twelve or fourteen years. Their +mind, in the opinion of Dr. Brander, seems rather to be asleep than +incapable. One child was taught to read and write, and to speak English +fluently, and gained some knowledge of arithmetic; and this was not an +exceptional case.</p> + +<p>It does not seem at all remarkable, when we consider the ease with which +monkeys can be taught many arts and acts new to them, that those +dwarfish men, like other savages, greatly superior as they are in brain +power to the apes, should be capable of acquiring the minor elements of +education. It is not what they can be taught, but what they have taught +themselves, that we must consider in assigning them to their comparative +place in intellectual development. In this respect the Mincopies are on +a very low plane. They have not even acquired the art of making a fire, +though this is almost universal with mankind. All they know is how to +keep a fire alive, and in this they are very assiduous. It is probable +that they may have obtained fire at first from volcanoes on neighboring +islands.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span>They are lacking, like the Pygmy races in general, in the art of +chipping stone, one of the earliest arts acquired by man. Their only +means of shaping stone is to put it into the fire until it breaks or +splinters, when they can use the sharp splinters for their purposes. +They are quite destitute of the art of drawing, and have no means of +communicating their thoughts except by speech.</p> + +<p>Yet with these deficiencies, they have made some progress in the +industrial arts. They make wooden vessels, and can produce pottery which +stands the fire and in which they cook most of their food. They make +nets of considerable size, which they use to fish with in the narrow +streams. They have arrows and harpoons, whose points are fastened to the +shaft by a long cord. The fish or land animal struck unwinds this cord +in trying to get away, and its speed being checked by the shaft which it +drags along, it is easily caught.</p> + +<p>The Mincopies possess boats, and these seem to have been early +possessions of the Negrito populations, by whose aid they were able to +migrate from island to island. Their canoes have nautical qualities +which have astonished English sailors. At one time they were probably +bold and daring fishermen and navigators, until driven to the forests +and mountains by the invasion of the Malays.</p> + +<p>As the Pygmies were in all probability the aborigines of Africa, so the +Negritos appear to have been the aboriginal people of the Eastern +islands, if not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span> of India. Quatrefages, in his work "The Pygmies," finds +reason to believe that even at the present day traces of them, pure or +mixed, can be found from southeast New Guinea to the Andaman Islands, +and from the Sunda Islands to Japan. On the continent their range +extends, according to him, "from Annam and the peninsula of Malacca to +the western Ghauts, and from Cape Comorin to the Himalayas."</p> + +<p>In one part of India the Negrito-like population are called +<i>Bander-lokh</i> (literally "man-ape") by the neighboring tribes. The +Semangs of Malacca are jet-black in color, with thick lips, flat nose, +and protruding abdomen. In regard to the characteristic of prognathism, +it is possessed in various degrees, the most pronounced instance being +seen in the photograph of one of the Kalangs of Java, a tribe which has +recently become extinct. The face of this individual is strikingly +ape-like in profile.</p> + +<p>Everywhere that these dwarfish people are found, whether in Africa, +India, or Malaysia, they present the appearance of being an aboriginal +race, now largely annihilated by the incursions of larger and +better-armed people, but once widespread and numerous. As to their place +of origin, whether in Africa, India, or the island region, it is useless +to speculate, as the facts on which an opinion could be based are not +known. Wherever found they are in close relation to the black races, the +negroes of Africa, the Papuans of Polynesia,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span> and evidences of a +considerable degree of mixture of races exist. This is especially the +case in Polynesia and India, where the Negritos appear to shade off into +the full-sized blacks through an intermediate series of half-breeds.</p> + +<p>Yet one fact of ethnological importance needs to be mentioned. The +Negritos and Pygmies are everywhere brachycephalic, or short-headed, +with the exception of the Bushmen, who are dolichocephalic, or partially +so. Negroes and Papuans are strongly dolichocephalic. In this respect +the Pygmy peoples agree more closely with the short-headed Mongolian or +yellow races than with the long-headed negro or black races, though in +general features they come near the latter.</p> + +<p>In truth, this race of dwarfs may be the primitive stock from which the +Mongolians branched off on the one hand, and the Negroes on the other, +since they are in some measure intermediate between the two. Latham says +of the Rajmalis mountaineers, "Some say their physiognomy is Mongolian, +others that it is African." Quatrefages is strongly of the opinion that +the negro is of Indian origin, and reached Africa through migration. He +bases his opinion on the negroid characters of existing tribes in India, +Persia, and elsewhere in Asia, and on the similar characters of the +aboriginal Polynesians. As regards the Pygmies, they probably spread +over the whole of this section of the earth at a period of remote +antiquity, and very long ago<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span> developed the racial differences which +appear to exist between separate tribes. Distinctions of this kind can +be seen in the East, and a marked one is pointed out by Stanley between +the Wambutti and the Akka, as already stated.</p> + +<p>Wherever found the Pygmies are hunters, usually making the deep forest +their home, and are masters through their agility, cunning, and deadly +weapons of the whole world of lower animals. Physically they are +probably not far removed from the man-ape, their remote ancestor, for +they retain various ape-like characters, as in aspect of face, shape of +body, occasional hairiness, diminutive size, shortness of legs, +imperfect development of the calf, occasional waddling gait in walking, +and the other particulars above pointed out. There are certainly +abundant reasons for believing them to be, as we have suggested, the +final result of the first great conflict in the evolution of man, that +with the lower animals.</p> + +<p>This assured mastery once gained, the occasion for further development +of this people ceased while they remained in the forest habitat which +they had inherited from their ape ancestors. Here the problem of food +getting was fully solved and there was nothing to instigate any new step +in evolution. The period of conflict ended, a period of rest supervened, +and, so far as the Pygmies are concerned, this period still continues. +Though later races, their probable descendants, have left<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span> the forest +and set up new stages of development through new conflicts with adverse +conditions, the Pygmies remain in their resting state, and, if left to +themselves, might continue in this state for ages in the future as they +have done for ages in the past. As the case now stands, however, +annihilation threatens some of them, while educative and other +influences from without may bring to an end the physical and mental +isolation of the others.</p> + +<p>In considering the Pygmies as they exist to-day, in fact, it is +impossible to say how far their habits and possessions are original with +themselves and how far they have been derived from others. There can be +no question that they have been influenced by the customs of surrounding +peoples of higher culture, and that they have received implements and +methods from without. To get down to the pure Pygmy, as an outcome of +evolution within himself, we would need to strip off all these +adventitious aids, if we could distinguish them from the conditions +native to the race, and thus behold him as he was before he fell under +the influence of men of higher grade. Were it possible to isolate him in +this way, and present his original self, we should have before us an +ethnological specimen of the highest interest and importance, as the +ultimate resultant of the first great stage in the evolution of man from +his ape ancestor.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span></p> + + +<h2><a name="X" id="X"></a>X</h2> + +<h3>THE CONFLICT WITH NATURE</h3> + + +<p>It has been a frequently debated question whether man comprises a single +species or two or more species of animal descent. If a line be drawn +from the Gold Coast in tropical Africa to the steppes of Tartary in +central Asia, it will present two markedly distinct races of men at its +two extremities. At its southwestern end we find the most long-headed, +prognathous, frizzly-haired, dark-skinned race of mankind. At its +northeastern end is the most round-headed, orthognathous, +straight-haired, and yellow-skinned race. Midway between these appear +intermediate peoples, with heads round, oval, or oblong, hair straight +or curly, skin fair or dark, faces upright or protruding, men possibly, +to judge from their physical character, a result of the amalgamation of +these two distinct races.</p> + +<p>These differences may be the result of original difference in species or +may be due to climatic and other influences of nature. Some writers +accept the one view, some the other, and neither is sustained by any +great weight of facts. The Pygmy race presents somewhat similar +differences. Usu<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span>ally round-headed, these small men are in some +instances long-headed, while such marked distinctions appear at times +that Stanley classed two neighboring tribes as separate races. Here they +present features of the Mongolian, there they are similar to the Negro. +This goes to indicate that the distinction between the Negro and the +Mongolian began far back in time, but it does not prove that it is the +result of original difference in species, or that two distinct forms of +ape separately developed into man. While this is quite possible, the +theory of a single species has been most widely accepted. The chief +writers on the subject think that the differences arose during that +undeveloped stage of mankind when resistance to the transforming +influences of nature was still weak, and when the structure of the human +frame may have yielded readily to agencies which would have little or no +effect upon it now.</p> + +<p>Of one thing we can be sure, which is that there was a wide migration of +the apes in remote times. Leaving the tropics, many species spread to +the north, extending into Europe, which at that time seems to have been +connected by land bridges with Africa, and spreading far through Asia. +There was probably nothing at that time in atmospheric conditions to +check such a migration. The Tertiary climate of Europe is believed to +have been quite mild. And the ape family is by no means necessarily +confined to warm regions. Monkeys<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span> are found to-day at high elevations +on the mountains of India, enduring the chill of ten thousand feet of +altitude.</p> + +<p>Of the migration to Europe abundant evidence exists, fossil remains of +monkeys having been found in many localities of that continent. Among +these residents of early Europe was at least one representative of the +anthropoid apes, the fossil species known as Dryopithecus, from the +middle Miocene deposits of St. Gaudens, France. This species, apparently +most nearly allied to the chimpanzee, was taller than any existing ape. +Two or three other fossil remains, possibly of anthropoid apes of +smaller size, have been found, and Europe seems to have been well +supplied with apes of a considerable degree of development at a remote +geological period. Among those may have been the form we have designated +the man-ape, the ancestor of the human race, though no fossil relic +attributable to such a species has been recognized.</p> + +<p>Coming down to a much lower period, we begin to find traces of man, +first in his rudely chipped and later in his polished stone weapons and +tools. And the bones of man himself appear, extending through what is +known as the Quaternary or Pleistocene period. Nearly all these remains +have been preserved by the art of burial, a fact indicating some degree +of mental progress, though their residence in caves and the rudeness of +their implements are evidence that the race was still low in culture.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span>An interesting fact in connection with these ancient human remains is +that most of them indicate a small race, with narrow skulls and +prognathous jaws, recalling the Pygmies in general structure. This rude +and small race continued until a late period of prehistoric time. It +extended down from the cave bear and mammoth period through the later +reindeer period, as is proved by discoveries made in the caves of the +Belgian province of Namur. And there is good reason to believe that it +continued into the age of bronze, for the small size of the handles of +bronze weapons show they must have been intended for men with small +hands.</p> + +<p>These diminutive people seem to have been not over four feet eight +inches high. They were not alone, however. Men of normal height were in +Europe with them. The northward migration of the Pygmies seems to have +been accompanied or followed by that of a full grown people. Yet the +Pygmies have held their own in Europe as in Africa, with certain +modifications. In Sicily and Sardinia, which form part of a supposed +former land bridge between Africa and Europe, a small people about five +feet high still exist, whom Dr. Kollman looks upon as representing a +distinct race, the predecessors of the tall Europeans. In the Lapps of +northern Europe we possess another small race, possibly the lineal +descendents of the Quaternary Pygmies. Everywhere the small man has +been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span> forced to retire into forests, deserts, and icy barrens before the +taller and stronger man. The folk-lore of Europe is full of traditions +of a race of dwarfs, and its conflict with men of larger mould, and +there are various indications that this race was once widespread.</p> + +<p>What has been said here of the migration of man into Europe and his +development in that country is preliminary to a consideration of the +second great stage of human development, that due to the conflict with +nature. The conflict with the animal world appears to have ended in the +production of a dwarfish, forest-dwelling variety of man, in the lowest +human stage of mental evolution. The conflict with nature ended in the +development of a full-sized variety of man, dwelling largely in the open +country and much superior in intellect, as indicated by his higher +powers of thought and advanced degree of organization.</p> + +<p>The conflict with nature took several forms, in accordance with the +conditions of the several regions inhabited by man. Its result was to +subdue nature to the use and benefit of mankind, and the methods, in the +tropical localities of original man, consisted in the reduction of +animals to the domestic state and a similar domestication of food +plants. In other words, one of its early stages was the development of +the herding habit, while a far more important one was that of the +appearance of the agricultural industries. In Europe a third<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span> and still +more vigorous influence supervened, that of the conflict with cold and +man's gradual adaptation to the conditions of a frigid climate.</p> + +<p>If the nomad dwarfs were the aboriginal men, all later races must have +developed from them. While remaining in the forest and retaining their +primitive habits, the Pygmies presented an instance of arrested +evolution. For a new development to begin it was necessary to abandon +the old locality and with it the old habits, and this they probably +began to do at a remote period. When, indeed, the earth was their +dominion, there was no reason for their remaining restricted to a forest +residence, as they have been since the larger races took possession of +the open country. We do not need to go back far in time in the East to +find the Pygmy race in full control of the Philippine and other islands, +and probably of Malacca and parts of Hindostan. Their present +restriction and partial extermination have been due to the incursions of +the warlike Malays. The Andaman Mincopies remained undisturbed until a +recent date, and added fishing to their hunting pursuits. And the canoes +which these islanders now possess were probably the invention of their +race, and furnished the means by which the aborigines spread from island +to island of those thickly studded seas.</p> + +<p>In Africa the only existing indication of a migration of the forest folk +into the open country is found in the Bushmen and Hottentots of the far<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span> +south. The former, confined to the desert, remain nomad hunters and +present no step of advance beyond the Akka and other equatorial tribes. +The Hottentots, on the contrary, have made an important step of +progress. While still nomads and addicted to hunting, they have +domesticated cattle and sheep and become essentially a herding people, +though mentally the lowest race of herders on the face of the earth.</p> + +<p>With this change in habits, the Hottentots have significantly increased +in stature. While still of medium height, they are considerably larger +than their Bushmen kindred, to whom they present a close resemblance in +other respects. This increase in size is a common result of a change in +habits which insures a fuller supply of food with less strain upon the +muscular organization in obtaining it; a fact of which the lower animal +world is full of illustrations. The life of the forest and desert +hunters is one of incessant activity, and their food supply is +precarious. The Hottentots, on the contrary, take life easily and are +inclined to indolence, their herds supplying them with food in abundance +with little exertion. They retain enough of the primeval strain to be +fond of hunting, and while thus engaged display the activity of their +ancestral race, but ordinarily they pursue an idle, wandering life, and +their increase in size may well be a result of their change in habits.</p> + +<p>The Hottentots, while still low in the human<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span> scale, are mentally a +stage in advance of the Bushmen, they having a more developed social +organization and superior powers of thought. The latter is indicated by +their myths and legends, of which they have a considerable store, though +they are in great measure destitute of religious conceptions, such +religion as they possess taking in great part the primitive form of +ancestor worship. Under the influence of Europeans they are gradually +abandoning their old habits and adopting those of civilized life, but +while improving in social and industrial conditions there is little +evidence of intellectual advance.</p> + +<p>The development in method of food-getting displayed by the Hottentots +was really but the completion of the old battle for dominion with the +animal host. It consisted in subjecting some of the docile herbivora +more fully to human mastership. The hunter has to do with hostile +beasts, victims but not servants of man. The herder has reduced some of +these animals to servitude, and no longer has to overcome them through +the arduous labors of the chase. He is able to obtain, as we have said, +more food with less exertion, a larger population can live in a limited +district, and the beneficial effects upon the mind of a closer social +intercourse are shown.</p> + +<p>But the most important event in this stage of evolution was the +subjection of the plant world to man. For ages of interminable length +this was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span> not thought of. Fruits and other vegetable products formed +part of man's food; but these were the growth of wild nature, and the +plant world was left to its own will, with no effort to bring it under +human control. There is nothing to show that the idea of agriculture +ever entered the mind of a Pygmy. Of the plants surrounding him, far the +greater number were useless for food, only the few were available; but +the conception of favoring the few at the expense of the many apparently +never occurred to him. There is, indeed, some crude and simple +agriculture pursued by a few of the Negritos of Luzon, but evidently as +an imitation of the Malay agriculture or as a result of direct teaching, +certainly not as an original conception. The conflict of the Pygmies +with nature has been confined to the animal world, and reached its +highest level in the herding industries of the Hottentots.</p> + +<p>Where and when the subjugation of the plant world began it is impossible +to say. It very probably had its origin in the fertile open lands of the +tropics. But that it originated in the central region of Africa, or that +the agriculturists of that region were of native origin, are both +subjects open to question. The forest folk may have spread into the open +country, there developed a crude agriculture, favored the growth of food +plants at the expense of useless shrubs and trees, and gradually +advanced in this new form of industry. This would be in accordance with +the opinion of Vir<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span>chow, who looks upon the negro as the descendant of +the Pygmy. No great change was necessary to convert the one into the +other. The Pygmy is negro-like in cast of countenance and bodily +formation. He differs in size, in complexion, and in shape of head. But +new conditions may have given rise to these differences. The fierce suns +of the African lowlands may well have caused an increased deposit of +pigment, changing the yellowish hue of the Pygmy to the deep black of +the negro. An increase in size is a natural result when exertion +diminishes and food increases. And a tendency for the head to change +from the short to the long shape is shown in the Bushmen.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, certain anthropologists, of whom we may name +Quatrefages, take an opposite view, and believe that the negroes +migrated from Asia or the Eastern islands to Africa, being, like the +negro-like Papuans, descendants of the sable or dark brown Negritos of +the East. In this case agriculture may have originated in Asia and have +been brought by migrants to Africa. All we know historically concerning +it is that the earliest traceable seats of agriculture appear to have +been the fertile valleys of India, Babylonia, and Egypt. But the known +culture of the earth in these regions goes back only a few thousands of +years, while for the first crude stages of agriculture we must probably +measure years by tens of thousands.</p> + +<p>The degree of subjection of nature to man's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span> needs, as displayed in +tropical agriculture, was comparatively small, and its effect on the +development of the human intellect, while important, was limited. It had +the highly useful result of a great increase in population, the growth +of village and town life, an advance in social relations, and the +beginning of political relations. New implements were needed, better +houses were erected, the settled condition of the people gave rise to +direct efforts at education, and added the important element of +commerce, in its earliest form, to the industries of mankind. The result +must have been a fresh start in the development of the intellect, though +one that probably soon reached its culminating point in the central +tropics.</p> + +<p>The highest results of the development of agriculture in tropical +countries, unaided by secondary influences, seem to have been those +existing in the highly fertile regions of Egypt and Babylonia at the +opening of the historical period. The density of population in those +countries, due to their prolific production of food stuffs, gave rise to +considerably developed political and social institutions, and laid the +foundations for a great subsequent advance under the influence of +warfare, invasion, and the other more potent causes of human progress. +Only for such ulterior influences the agriculturists of these countries +would perhaps to-day remain dormant in the stage of mental progress they +had attained ten thousand years ago.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span>In considering the existing conditions of the forest nomads and the +African agriculturists, it is not safe to credit them with the +origination of all the arts and implements they possess. The negroes, +for instance, have been for ages in more or less close association with +the Pygmies, and may have taught them many things which they would not +have attained through their own limited powers of thought. The bow and +poisoned arrow are very likely original with them. They possess this +weapon throughout the wide range from the African Hottentots to the +Philippine Negritos, while it is not a weapon of the surrounding +peoples. The spear is probably also original. The same cannot safely be +said of their traps and snares for game. These seem beyond their power +of invention, and may well have been taught them by the negro tribes. +Their habitations, aside from the mere leaf shelters, had probably a +similar origin. In Africa the huts doubtless had their model in those of +the negroes. In the Philippines they are pile-supported bamboo huts of +the pattern of those of the Malays. If, then, we take from the forest +folk the arts taught them or imitated by them, we reduce them to a very +low level of intellect and a remarkable paucity of products from their +own powers of thought.</p> + +<p>Similar reasoning may be applied to the settled natives of Africa. For +thousands of years past they have been in contact on their northern +borders with civilized peoples, numerous immigrants<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span> have made their way +into the country, and a considerable degree of amalgamation has very +likely taken place. We cannot, therefore, safely credit them with all +the arts and implements they possess nor with all their political and +social progress. No doubt much came to them from without, much was +taught them from within, and a mixture of blood with superior races may +have aided considerably in improving their stock. We are justified, +then, in their case as in that of the Pygmies, in believing that their +stage of mental and social development is only in part original with +them, and is largely due to the influences of education and +amalgamation.</p> + +<p>The pure negro is not a very numerous element of the population of +Africa. He stands in a measure intermediate between the nomad Pygmies of +the forest and the desert, and the mixed races who may be called negroid +but cannot strictly be called negro. With their foreign blood, most of +these have obtained foreign arts and elements of culture, and stand at a +distinctly higher physical and mental level than the unamalgamated +negro.</p> + +<p>For the pure or nearly pure negro we must seek the lowlands of the +Guinea coast, the seat of the most pronounced existing negro type. Other +localities are in the region of the Gaboon, along the lower Zambesi, and +in the Benue and Shari basins. Here we find the true native African, a +race strikingly uniform in aspect, and, next to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span> the Pygmies, the lowest +in physical characteristics of mankind. The features of structure in +which the negro appears to occupy a position intermediate between the +white man and the man-ape—lower than the former and approaching the +latter—are the following: First, his abnormal length of arm, which +averages about two inches longer than that of the Caucasian, and, when +in the erect position, sometimes reaches the knee-pan, being little +shorter proportionately than that of the chimpanzee. Second, his +prognathism, or projection of the jaws—his index of facial angle being +about 70, as compared with the Caucasian 82. Third, his weight of +brain—average European 45 ounces, negro 35, highest gorilla 20. Fourth, +his short, flat, snub nose, deeply depressed at the base, wide and with +dilated nostrils at the extremity. Fifth, his thick protruding lips. +Sixth, his high and prominent cheek bones. Seventh, his great thickness +of cranium, which resists blows that would break the skull of an average +European. Eighth, the weakness of his lower limbs, the broad, flat foot +and low instep, the projecting heel and somewhat prehensile great toe.</p> + +<p>These characteristics the negroes possess in common with the Pygmies and +the Negritos. Others of less significance could be named. One important +character is that of the cranial sutures, which close much earlier in +the negro than in higher races, thus checking the development of the +brain while<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span> the body is still growing. To this many ascribe the mental +inferiority of the negro race. A close observer records, as a result of +long observation on the plantations of the southern United States, that +"the negro children were sharp, intelligent, and full of vivacity, but +on approaching the adult period a gradual change set in. The intellect +seemed to become clouded, animation giving place to a sort of lethargy, +briskness yielding to indolence." This is very probably the case with +the Pygmies, who similarly reach a mental limit beyond which they cannot +advance; but this limit is set in the adult period. In other words, the +adult Pygmy is on the mental level of the negro child. If the African +Pygmy is as short lived as his Eastern congener, he does not survive, as +a rule, many years beyond the age of adolescence, and continues in a +stage of childhood, mentally considered, until death.</p> + +<p>The conclusion to be derived from this interesting fact would appear to +be that the negro has made a distinct and important advance mentally +beyond the Pygmy, reaching at adolescence the limit of mental evolution +which the Pygmy reaches at death. But the negro stops here, or goes +little beyond this limit. His cranial sutures close, the growth of the +brain is arrested, and the development of his mind comes to an end. In +the white the brain continues to expand, and the closing of the sutures +takes place later in life. Probably the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span> latter is a result of the +former, mental development having overcome the tendency of the sutures +to close in early life. It may be further said of the negro that, +mentally, he is emotional far more than intellectual, and unmoral rather +than immoral, he being apparently incapable of comprehending the moral +conceptions of advanced man.</p> + +<p>If we seek the Malaysian and Australasian region of the Eastern seas, we +find there another branch of the negro race, similarly in contact with, +and apparently derived from, a Pygmy stock. This Papuan race of blacks +covers a wide island region, but, like the African race, has become +greatly modified by mixture with alien peoples, largely of Malay origin. +Its purest type is to be found in New Guinea, where it approaches the +negro in general character, though with distinctive features of its own.</p> + +<p>The Papuan is of medium height; fleshy rather than muscular; color a +sooty brown; forehead high, but narrow and retreating; nose sometimes +flat and wide at nostrils, but oftener hooked with depressed point; lips +thick and projecting; high cheek bones; prognathism general; hair black +and frizzly. He is negroid in appearance, and is said to resemble the +African of the coast region opposite Aden.</p> + +<p>We need not pursue this subject further. It will suffice to offer the +general conclusion that the negroid race, while, through its change of +habits<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span> from the hunting to the agricultural status, it has made an +advance both mentally and physically beyond the Pygmy aborigines, does +not appear to have advanced greatly in either particular, the negro +reaching a mental limit at a low level, and being arrested physically +while still possessing marked characteristics of the man-ape.</p> + +<p>For the higher development of man, under the stress of a more energetic +conflict with the conditions of nature, we must seek the continent of +Europe, whose human inhabitants had not only to subdue the wild beasts +and teach the earth to bring forth wholesome food in place of useless +plants, but also to battle with wintry climates, and overcome the +adverse influences of cold, sterility of soil, and other hostile +conditions of the northern zones.</p> + +<p>One of the chief problems of biology has long been that of the +production of new varieties and species of animals as an effect of +gradual variation in structure. This is believed to be ordinarily due to +changes in the conditions of nature, animals and plants which have made +accordant changes in structure being preserved, those which have not +changed in accordance with the new conditions perishing. Where the +conditions of nature remain uniform, species may persist for long ages +unchanged, though even in the latter case changes in structure are apt +to occur, since variation in species is not wholly dependent upon +external changes.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span> To a considerable extent it is due to causes existing +within the organism itself, fortuitous variations being occasionally +preserved when not out of harmony with the state of affairs prevailing +in the external world. Or variation may occur through the establishment +of new relations between the species inhabiting some locality while +inanimate nature remains uniform, or through migration into new +inanimate or animate surroundings. Variations, in short, may arise under +the influence of any change in the general environment which renders +necessary adaptive changes in structure. But this adaptation in some +cases takes place in the mind, new actions or methods of meeting the +contingency being adopted which render physical changes unnecessary. The +problem is a highly complicated one, and no doubt many causes have to do +with the multiplicity of effects.</p> + +<p>There have very likely been many occasions where the changes in +structure took place rapidly, in consequence of sudden variations in +natural conditions. Such rapid changes in conditions necessarily exert a +severe stress or strain on organisms, either destroying them or causing +an equally rapid adaptation, physical or mental. In such instances it is +likely that many species perish, the change demanded being too great; +others escape by migration to better fitted localities; and others, more +mobile or less affected by the change, survive through adaptive +variations.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span>Of such periods of strain upon organic nature we know of only one in +recent geological times, that known as the Glacial Age, the vast +variation in climate which took place when the ice of the Far North +flowed down in mighty billows over northern Europe and America, burying +everything beneath its crushing weight, and bringing many forms of life +to a sudden and untimely end. No doubt a considerable number of species +of animals and plants perished before this frightful invasion. A notable +instance among these was perhaps that of the American horse, which +disappeared at about this period. Other species survived by a retreat to +more tropical regions, to return after the invasion had spent its force. +Still others may have survived by adapting themselves to the changed +conditions, emerging as new species or well-marked varieties.</p> + +<p>Among the beings which passed unscathed through this extraordinary +change in climate was apparently man. And it seems safe to affirm that +man's contest with the glacial conditions, whose force was exerted upon +his mind instead of on his body, was one of the most potent influences +in the evolution of the human race. Man entered the contest at a low +level of mental development; he emerged from it at a comparatively high +level.</p> + +<p>No one to-day questions that man was an inhabitant of Europe during the +Glacial Age. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span> proofs of this are too numerous and positive to be +doubted. He may have inhabited America in the same period, though of +this there still remains some doubt. Claims have been made of the +discovery of evidences of man in Europe long before the glacial epoch, +reaching as far back as the Pliocene and even the Miocene Age. But these +claims have not been established beyond question, and the earliest +generally acknowledged traces of man are confined to glacial Europe.</p> + +<p>Yet we are forced to acknowledge that if man existed in Europe during +the prevalence of the ice age, he, or his ancestor, must have been there +before that period. It is absolutely certain that no animal accustomed +to tropical conditions would have chosen this period of extreme cold to +migrate from the warm tropics to the frozen north. The fact that man was +in Europe during glacial times is the very strongest evidence that he +reached there during the milder preceding period, when a genial and +uniform climate is believed to have prevailed throughout southern and +central Europe. If we could accept as fact the seeming very ancient +evidences of man's handiwork, we would be obliged to consider him an +inmate of Europe long ages before the glacial epoch.</p> + +<p>If, as there is reason to believe, the man of Africa at that remote +period was the ancestor of the forest-dwelling Pygmy of to-day, lower in +mental level and more bestial in aspect than any of his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span> descendants, +yet much advanced in mind beyond the man-ape of earlier ages, then we +may with some assurance accept this as the type of the primitive man of +Europe. He could have reached there by the land bridges which are +thought to have connected Europe and Africa at that time, one closing +the straits at Gibraltar, the other extending south from Italy by way of +Sicily. These were the routes by which the apes are supposed to have +entered Europe, and by which man may well have followed in a later age. +It is possible, indeed, that man reached the northern continent from +another locality, the habitat of the Negrito race in southeastern Asia +and the Malaysian islands. The fossil man-ape of Java, Pithecanthropus, +is a strong argument that this was the region, or one of the regions, in +which the development of man took place. However this be, we can be +assured that primitive man was far more likely to widen his field of +occupation through migration than any other animal, and may conjecture +that he spread over Europe and Asia in the mild preglacial times, and +perhaps even reached America, giving rise to the early man of that +hemisphere.</p> + +<p>The advent of man in Europe was not probably followed by any +considerable intellectual development. The mild and equable climate +which at that time seems to have prevailed, was not likely to make a +stringent demand on his mental resources. Food was very likely abundant +and eas<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span>ily obtained, animals of the chase being plentiful, and edible +roots and fruits by no means lacking. Thus he could readily obtain the +means of subsistence by aid of the arts and weapons employed by him in +the tropical forests. It is not unlikely that some changes, both +physical and mental, took place, but these were probably not great. +There may have been some change in color and form, a first step toward +the distinctions which separate the white from the black man, and a +degree of mental adaptation to certain exigencies of the new situation; +but in neither direction were the variations likely to be very decided.</p> + +<p>Such, as we conceive it, was the man of early Europe, in great measure a +counterpart of the forest nomad of the tropics of Africa and the East, +the monarch of the animal kingdom, but not the lord of the earth. He may +have made some progress in the contest with inanimate nature. Vegetable +food in his new home was less abundant than in his old, and the +instigation to agricultural pursuits was stronger. And though Europe was +thickly wooded, it probably presented more open land than Africa. Both +the incitement to agriculture and the facilities for its exercise were, +in all probability, greater than in Africa, and man may have begun to +cultivate the earth here at an earlier date than in his native realm. We +are free at least to speculate that European man gained some slight +knowledge of agriculture in the pre-glacial<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span> period, but this is +doubtful, and the relics of early man yield no evidence in its favor. +Mentally it is questionable if he was advanced beyond the level of the +least developed negro tribes, and perhaps not beyond that of the forest +pygmies.</p> + +<p>But at length the shadow of a mighty coming change began to fall upon +the fair face of Europe. Year by year the winters grew colder. The ice +sheet, which was in time to bury half of Europe under its chilly mantle, +had begun its slow movement toward the south. It advanced very slowly. +Centuries elapsed during its deliberate march. Had it moved with +rapidity, few animals could have survived its effects. Some of them +found time for changes in structure to fit themselves to the new +conditions. Others perished as the wintry chill increased. Constituted +for tropical warmth, they were unable to endure severe cold. The apes +and monkeys may have been among the early victims. To-day the apes of +Gibraltar are the only ones existing in a wild state in Europe, and it +is doubtful if they are of an original stock. There is good reason to +believe that escape by migration southward was cut off by the sinking of +the ancient land bridges, so that the animals north of the Mediterranean +had no choice between adaptation and annihilation.</p> + +<p>Among the animals thus taken prisoner by the glacial chill was European +man. He could not escape, and was forced to remain, exposed to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span> +alternatives of perishing from cold and hunger, or fitting himself to +endure the new conditions which were coming upon his northern home, +perhaps the most adverse to animal life that had ever been known. Man +was about to be subjected to an extraordinary strain, which he could +only meet by an extraordinary adaptation.</p> + +<p>The changes by which he met these new conditions were in a very small +degree physical; they were almost wholly mental. In all animals of the +higher orders, adaptive variations are apt to be in a measure of this +character, the body being relieved from the need of structural change +through some new activity of the mind. In man this was undoubtedly the +case in great, probably in very great, measure. There may have been an +increase in size and strength, some variations in color, in the +breathing organs, in power of resistance of the cuticle to cold, etc., +but the principal physical change was in a growth of the brain and +expansion of the cranium, giving rise to a less bestial physiognomy and +an advanced mental power.</p> + +<p>One physical change that would seem necessary to enable an animal to +endure severe cold, the development of a thick protective covering of +fur or hair, did not take place in man. The change was more likely in +the other direction, since the hairy cover which is possessed by many of +the forest folk has disappeared. This loss of hair by man has been +referred by Darwin to sexual selection, that power<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span>ful influence to +which animals seem to owe so many physical structures of no apparent +use, and some of them seemingly disadvantageous. In the case of man in +the circumstances now under consideration, exposed without natural +covering to the growing chill of the advancing ice sheet, the influence +of sexual selection would certainly have found a strong counteracting +force in natural selection, had not some other means of escaping the +influence of the cold been found.</p> + +<p>As it was, the difficulty was undoubtedly overcame in great measure by +the adoption of artificial clothing. The mind came to the aid of the +body. The man who could chip a stone into the shape of an axe or spear +head, was sufficiently advanced mentally to conceive the idea of +covering his body with leaves fastened together in some way, with other +vegetable fabrics, or with the skins of slain animals. Protection from +the cold was also sought in caverns and rock shelters, and for a very +long period man remained a cave-dweller. There is hardly a cavern in +western Europe in which he has not left some trace of his residence. +Where caves were not available, rude artificial shelters were probably +built. Even the orang builds a shelter of this kind, and we can readily +conceive of man at a very early period making himself a shelter of +leaves and boughs, from which, as the cold increased, he might easily +evolve a hut composed of a wooden framework covered with skins such as +he used for clothing.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span>When and where the most important of discoveries, that of fire, was +made, it is impossible to say. Fire arising from natural causes, such as +conflagrations started by lightning, no doubt early taught man the +advantage of this agency as a protection from cold, but the artificial +production of fire was a process too intricate to be arrived at by +undeveloped man except as a result of accident. It has never been +achieved, as we have seen, by the Andaman Mincopies. The rudiments of +the fire-making art were possessed by primitive man. In chipping flints +into arrow or lance heads sparks must frequently have been struck from +the hard stone, and at times these may have fallen upon and kindled +inflammable material. The rubbing requisite in shaping and polishing war +clubs may have yielded a heat occasionally causing fire. In boring the +holes necessary to make the needles found among primitive implements, a +process resembling that of the fire-drill must have been employed. In +short, it is not difficult to conceive of more than one way in which the +fire-making art could have been gained by accident, though it may have +been late in coming, since some, perhaps all, of the arts described were +not attained until the Glacial Age. Once possessed, this important art +would scarcely have been suffered to disappear. With its aid man could +defy the effects of the glacial chill, so far as its direct action upon +his body was concerned; and with it he also gained<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span> a new and efficient +means of defence against carnivorous animals, which have ever since +feared fire more than weapons.</p> + +<p>The discovery of methods of artificial fire-making was perhaps preceded +by a utilization of the flames caused by lightning and other natural +causes, the fire being conveyed by torches from hearth to hearth and +kept alive with sedulous care. Even after artificial methods of +fire-making were invented, our savage ancestors were exceedingly careful +to keep their fires alive, as the Mincopies are to-day, and this heedful +attention left its traces until very recent times. So important was the +apparatus for kindling a flame deemed that in India the fire-twirl was +made a god and became one of the chief deities of that polytheistic +land. In many other places, especially in Persia, the element of flame +was raised to the dignity of a deity and worshipped among the higher +gods. Among the semi-civilized Americans the peril of the loss of fire +gave rise to a serious religious ceremony. At certain set intervals all +the fires within the limits of a tribe or nation were extinguished, and +a period of gloom, despondency, and dread of the malignant powers +succeeded. Then the "new fire" was kindled on the temple altar, and the +flame was conveyed by swift messengers from hearth to hearth throughout +the land. This done, the period of gloom was followed by one of general +joy and festivity. The malignant deities were banished; the gods of +light and warmth<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span> were dominant again; happiness and security had +returned to man.</p> + +<p>The beginning of the use of clothing, of artificial shelter, and of fire +formed one of the most vital periods in the history of human evolution. +Coincident with them was the production of a much greater variety of +implements than had been previously possessed, and many of these much +superior to the older and ruder forms. The struggle with the glacial +cold had roused man's mind out of its old sluggishness, and brought it +actively into operation in devising means of counteracting the perils of +his situation and fitting him to the new conditions of existence.</p> + +<p>Among the important steps of progress was very likely a considerable +advance in the use of language, enabling the men of that period more +readily to consult with and advise one another, to give adequate warning +of danger, to aid in the chase or in industrial pursuits, to educate the +young and impart new ideas or teach new discoveries to the old. The +mental powers of the best-trained individuals then as now served the +whole community, and nothing of value that was once gained was likely to +be lost. Discovery and invention at that early period probably went on +with interminable slowness as compared with the progress in later ages, +yet even then new ideas, one by one, came into men's minds, and step by +step the methods of life were improved.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span>One important effect of the glacial chill needs to be adverted to. The +severity of the weather was not the only thing to be provided against. +The discovery of fire and the invention of clothing and habitation were +not enough to insure man's preservation. For the severe cold must have +greatly changed the conditions of the food supply, and the man of the +period found it a difficult matter to obtain the first necessaries of +life. The easy-going man of the earlier age, living amid an abundance of +fruits and vegetables and surrounded by numbers of game animals, or +dwelling beside streams which were filled with easily taken fish, +probably found the question of subsistence one of minor importance. The +coming on of the Glacial Age made this question one of major importance. +The supply of fruits and vegetable substances was greatly decreased by +the biting chill, and the number of food animals was correspondingly +reduced; while through much of the year the effects of frost drove the +fish from the streams, and cut off effectually this source of food. Man +was brought into a situation in which only the most active exertion of +his powers of thought could preserve him from annihilation.</p> + +<p>He now found the exercise of the art of hunting more difficult than ever +before, one that needed a new development of courage, cunning, +alertness, and endurance, the scarcity of animals obliging him to make +long journeys and attack the strong<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span>est creatures. Whether or not he +possessed the poisoned arrow, which the Pygmies now find so effective, +cannot be said, but in all probability he was forced to invent new and +more destructive weapons, a necessity that gave fresh exercise to his +powers of invention. So far as our actual knowledge goes, the art of +chipping stones into weapons and implements was not possessed before +this period, and it may have been a result of the severe exigencies of +the situation and the mental stimulation thence resulting. This art is +not possessed by any of the Pygmies, the nearest approach to it being +the splitting of stone by fire and using the splinters as weapons. Very +likely preglacial man was similarly destitute of this art.</p> + +<p>Under the severe strain of the glacial conditions the weak and incapable +doubtless succumbed to the cold and deficiency of food; the strong and +capable survived, gained superior powers, devised new weapons and +implements, and became adapted to a new and decidedly adverse situation. +From long depending, in considerable measure, on his physical powers, +man came to trust more fully than before in his mental faculties, the +result being a much greater variation in the size and activity of his +brain than in other portions of his physical structure. While it had +become more difficult to find and capture food animals, he was at the +same time in greater danger from carnivorous beasts, which were forced +by partial starvation to overcome their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span> dread of man. He was thus +obliged to become as alert and ready in defence as he was in attack, to +associate himself more fully with his fellows in his hunting excursions +and his other labors, and to adapt the forms and forces of nature still +more to his needs, his career as a tool-making animal being greatly +stimulated by the necessities of his situation.</p> + +<p>It is conceivable that the art of agriculture may have been one of the +outcomes of the situation in which man now found himself. The decrease +in the food supply must have put all his powers of invention to the +test, and the probable diminution in number and productiveness of food +plants may have served as an instigation to the cultivation of useful +plants, and the preservation of their products, where possible, for +winter supply. It is not unlikely that in this way and under this +stimulation agriculture began, and that it made its way subsequently +from this locality to more southern regions. In this, however, we cannot +go beyond conjecture.</p> + +<p>It seems useless to pursue this topic further, since the absence of +facts forces us to confine ourselves largely to suggestions and +probabilities. We have arrived at two definite hypotheses: first, that +the original stage of man's progress upward from the apes was completed +when he gained dominion over the animal kingdom and attained the +condition of the forest pygmies; second, that an advanced stage was +reached when he achieved the conquest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span> of nature, so far as overcoming +the exceedingly adverse conditions of the Glacial Age was concerned. At +the close of this period of frigid cold man emerged as a higher being +than the forest nomad or the agricultural people of the tropics, +possessed of much superior arts and implements and with largely enhanced +mental powers. The long and bitter struggle for existence through which +he had passed had lifted him to a much higher level in the upward +progress of life.</p> + +<p>He was a savage still, and at the close of the struggle he settled down +into a second stage of stagnation. The conflict was at an end, he was +the victor in the fight, he could rest upon his laurels and take life +easy. In addition to his mechanical gains, man had advanced much in +social and political relations, and continued to advance until his +primitive form of organization was perfected. At the end of it all we +find him existing under two conditions, depending upon differences in +the character of the country in which he lived.</p> + +<p>In the steppes and deserts of Asia and the deserts of Africa he was a +nomad herdsman, his life being spent in the care of his flocks and +herds, his political organization the patriarchal, his possessions few, +his needs small, his mind at rest, his progress largely at an end. Thus +he still lives, and this organization and mode of life still persist, +little affected by the long centuries that have passed and not greatly +modified by the many wars in which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span> he has been engaged. Mentally, the +man of the steppe and the desert is to-day little advanced beyond his +predecessors of thousands of years ago.</p> + +<p>In the more fertile regions of the earth man had become an +agriculturist, each clan holding its section of the earth as common +property. A different though primitive form of political organization +arose here, that of the village community, in which there was no +distinction of rich and poor, all men were equal in rights and +privileges, all were content with their situation, and the mental +condition was largely that of stagnation. This political condition we +find to have been widespread over the earth, alike in the eastern and +western hemispheres, as the one into which all developing agricultural +communities emerged, and in which they persisted unchanged until forced +to adopt new relations through a new influence still to be described. As +the patriarchal clan is persistent on the Asiatic steppes and deserts, +so is the village community on the Russian plains and among the Aryans +of Hindostan. It has been generally overcome in other localities, but it +was broadly extended until within comparatively recent times, and traces +of it may still be found in many parts of the earth.</p> + +<p>The political organization of these primitive communities of herders and +farmers was of the simplest. Over the herding clan a patriarchal chief +presided, his authority based on his position<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span> as representative of the +ancestor of the community. The head man of the agricultural clan was +elected by the free choice of his fellows, his equals in rank and +station. But the supposed most direct descendant from the clan ancestor +was apt to be chosen. In both cases the political organization was of +the family type, being but an extension of family government, and the +widely prevailing system of ancestor worship had much to do with the +reverence in which the chief was held and the authority which he +exercised.</p> + +<p>The development of this phase of human progress did not stop here. +Kingdoms and empires arose as direct resultants of this condition of +affairs. In some localities, such as Egypt and Babylonia, the great +fertility of the soil in the time gave rise to a dense population, +largely gathered in towns and villages, where industries other than +agriculture developed and closer social relations existed. The simple +organization of the village or the clan was not sufficient for such a +population, and a more intricate governmental system arose; but it seems +to have been simply an extension of the older system of chieftainship, +based on the family or paternal relation, and on the growth of religious +influence and priestly control. It seems, in fact, to have been through +the influence of religious ideas that men first rose to power and became +supreme over their fellows.</p> + +<p>We have no concern here with the development<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span> of religious systems, +other than to say that in the primitive agricultural community a +succession of ideas of man's relation to the unseen arose, yielding, in +addition to the widespread ancestor worship, a system of shamanism, or +belief in the presence and power of malignant spirits, and one of +fetichism, which developed into mythology, or worship of the great +powers of nature. What we are concerned in is the fact that from these +religious conceptions a priesthood everywhere arose, beginning in the +simple conjurer or the healer by spells and incantations, and developing +into a priestly establishment whose leading members had a vigorous +control over the people through their beliefs, fears, and superstitions.</p> + +<p>This priestly system was the basis of the first imperial organization. +Kingly authority was not gained at first through power over men's +bodies, but through influence over their minds. There is much reason to +believe that the chief of the clan or tribe, who led in its public +worship and was looked upon as the representative of its divine +ancestor, retained the influence thence arising as the tribe developed +into the nation, adding the power and position of the high priest to +that of the tribal chief.</p> + +<p>There is abundant evidence that in this simple and direct manner the +imperial organization everywhere grew out of the primitive village and +patriarchal systems. In the early days of Egypt, before<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span> its era of +conquest began, the Pharaoh was the high priest of the nation, weak in +temporal, strong in spiritual power; and the political organization in +general probably grew out of the sacerdotal establishment. Very likely +the Babylonian kingdom was organized in the same manner, though wars and +changes of dynasty have obscured its early state. In China the patriarch +of a nomad horde became emperor of a nation retaining ancestor worship +as its chief religious system. He held, and still holds, the position of +father of his people, the representative of the original ancestor, and +high priest of the nation.</p> + +<p>In India the priestly establishment was differently organized. It was a +democracy instead of an aristocracy. There was no high priest to seize +the reins of government. As a result, no empire arose in India. A simple +outgrowth of the tribal system developed, each tribe under its chief, +while the priesthood as a whole remained the real rulers of the people.</p> + +<p>If we come to America, we discover a similar condition of affairs, the +head of the religious establishment becoming everywhere the head of the +nation. This was the case in Mexico, where the Montezuma was high +priest, and derived his power largely from this position. It was the +case in Peru, where the Inca was the direct representative on earth of +the solar deity. It was the case with the agricultural communities of +the southern United<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span> States, whose Mico was at once high priest and +autocrat. It was doubtless the case with the Mound Builders, of whom +these communities were probably the descendants.</p> + +<p>Such seems to have been the final outcome of the contest with nature, +where permitted to develop in its natural and unobstructed way. A series +of empires of a simple type of organization arose, their rulers uniting +temporal and spiritual power, and becoming autocrats in a double sense, +supreme lords of body and soul. It was in its nature a persistent type. +Once reached, it tended to continue indefinitely, stagnation following +the era of growth. But war and invasion have broken it up everywhere +except in China, a country largely defended by nature against invasion +and inhabited by an innately peaceful people. As the forest Pygmy group +represents to-day the completion of the first stage of human evolution, +so the patriarchal empire of China represents that of the second. +Stagnation there long since succeeded development. For several thousand +years China has almost stood still. It comes down to us as the +fossilized representative of an antique system, physically active but +mentally inert, its organization rigidly fixed, and not to be disturbed +unless the empire itself is rent to pieces.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span></p> + + +<h2><a name="XI" id="XI"></a>XI</h2> + +<h3>WARFARE AND CIVILIZATION</h3> + + +<p>Long before the second phase of the evolution of man had been completed +the third phase had begun, that of the conflict of man with man. The +animal kingdom once subdued, and nature made man's friend and servant, +the human race increased and multiplied until the borders of communities +met and hostile relations arose between them. A fight for place began, a +struggle for dominion, a fierce and incessant contest for supremacy, and +for ages men locked arms in a terrible and merciless strife, in which +the weak and incompetent steadily went to the wall, the strong, daring, +and aggressive rose to power and control.</p> + +<p>It was the final act in the great drama of "natural selection," which +had been played upon the stage of the earth since the first appearance +of living forms; the last and most ruthless of them all, for the +instigating cause was no longer merely the pressure for a share of the +food supply, but to this was added the lust for power and place, the +hunger for wealth and dominion, the insatiable appetite for autocratic +control. Millions upon millions of men were swept away by the sword, +and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span> by its attendant demons, famine and pestilence; and still the +stronger and abler climbed to the top, the weaker and inferior +succumbed; and the intellectual evolution of man went on with enhanced +rapidity as the harvest of the sword was gathered in, and the merciless +reapers of men swept in successive columns over the earth, each a stage +higher in mental ability than the preceding.</p> + +<p>This phase of human evolution is that of the era of human history. +Before its advent man had no history. It would be as useful to attempt +to give the history of the gorilla as of man in the early stages of his +progress. History is the record of individuality, and in primitive times +equality and communism prevailed, and the individual had not yet +separated himself from the mass. Man had settled into the dull inertness +of a stagnant pool, and the fierce winds of war were needed to break up +his mental slothfulness and stir thought into healthful activity. There +must be leaders before there can be history; the annals of mankind begin +in hero worship; the relations of superior and inferior need to be +established; and individual action and supremacy are the foundations +upon which all history is built. Only by stirring up the deep pool of +human life into seething turmoil and unrest could the tendency to +stagnation be overcome, the best and most aspiring rising to the top, +the dull and heavy sinking to the bottom, and the element of thought +permeating the whole with its vitalizing spirit.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span>When this phase of evolution is reached, we cease for the first time to +deal with species and genera in the mass and begin to deal with +individuals, who now emerge from the general group and stand above and +apart like great signal posts on the highway of progress. These heroes +are not alone those of the sword. They are the leaders in art, in +literature, in science, in thought, in every domain; the men who stand, +above, supreme and shining, and toward whose elevation the whole mass +below surges slowly but strenuously upward. The third phase of human +evolution, therefore, is that of the emergence of the individual as the +leader, lawgiver, teacher of mankind, each leader forming a goal for the +emulation of all below. And this condition is the legitimate outcome of +war, which, terrible as it always has been, was the only agency that +could rapidly break up the stagnancy of early communism and send man +upward in a swirl toward the heights of civilization.</p> + +<p>To give the history of this phase of evolution would be to give the +history of mankind, and would be aside from the purpose of this work. +All that need be attempted, in support of our argument, is to present +some general deductions from human history, indicating the leading +features of the service man has received from war.</p> + +<p>Conflict between man and man was at first vague and inconsequential. It +was only after settled and organized communities, based origi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span>nally on +the family relation, and held together by the possession of property in +common, had been formed, that war became more effective in its results. +The chief of these results, in the early days, were two: the breaking up +of the old equality of power and possession, and the development of +larger and more powerful communities. The head man of the village +community, or the herding clan, possessed some delegated authority but +no political supremacy over his fellows. Equality existed alike in +theory and in fact. Battle between neighboring clans was the first step +toward breaking this up. The conquered clan became subordinated to the +victorious one, and the chief of the victors, as the representative of +his clan, exercised an authority over the subject community which he did +not possess at home. The degree of subordination differed from the mild +form of tribute-paying to that of personal slavery. But in either case +we see the old condition of equality vanishing, and that of class +distinctions and the relation of superior and inferior arising, while +the power of the chief advances from a delegated authority to an +established supremacy.</p> + +<p>The second outcome of this early phase of war was an increase in the +size of political groups. The conquered were forced to aid the +conquerors in war as in peace; clans combined to resist aggression; +minor communities grew into organized tribes; tribes developed into +nations as a result of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span> warlike operations. This growth in political +organization was a necessary and inevitable result of continued warfare. +The aggressors gathered all the strength possible. The assailed peoples +did the same. Temporary alliances grew into permanent ones. Larger +armies were formed, larger communities were organized, national +development advanced at a rate tenfold, probably a hundredfold, more +rapidly than it would have done had peaceful conditions persisted.</p> + +<p>Side by side with tribal and national consolidation went on the growth +in leadership. The head man became a war chief, the war chief a king. +Success made him a hero to his people. He grew to be the lord of +conquered tribes; into his hands fell the bulk of the spoils; the +relation of equality of possessions vanished as the plunder taken by the +army was distributed unequally among the victors. Below the principal +leader came his ablest followers, each claiming and receiving a +proportionate share in the new division of power and wealth. In short, +when the era of war had become fully inaugurated, the old social and +political relations of mankind were broken up with great rapidity; +equality of power was replaced by inequality, which steadily grew more +and more declared; equality of wealth in like manner vanished; in all +directions the individual emerged from the mass, class distinctions +became intricate, and the relations of rich and poor, of king, noble,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span> +citizen, and slave, completely replaced the old communal organization of +mankind.</p> + +<p>War was the great agent in this evolution. It might have emerged slowly +in peace; it came with almost startling rapidity in war, and reached a +degree of power on the one hand and subordination on the other that +could scarcely ever have appeared had conditions of peace prevailed. +With this growth of great nations came a rapid development in political +science, in legal institutions, in social relations. An enormous advance +was made, in a limited period, in the civilization of mankind; as a +result, not of the devastation and slaughter of war, but of its +influence upon human organization.</p> + +<p>It was the principle of reward for ability to which the leaders of men +owed their supremacy. When nations were organized this same principle +took another and very useful form. The distribution of wealth had become +strikingly unequal. There were endless grades of distinction between the +supremely wealthy and the absolutely poor. The wealthy were ready to +lavish their money in return for articles of pleasure and luxury. The +poor, in their thirst for a share of wealth, were strongly stimulated to +inventive activity in producing new and desirable wares. Inequality +became the mainspring of business activity; thought and inventive +ingenuity were strongly exercised; a rapid progress went on in the +production of new devices, new methods, and new articles of necessity +and lux<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span>ury; manufacture flourished, commerce increased, civilization +appeared, the whole as a legitimate outcome of the conditions brought +about by war.</p> + +<p>This phase of human evolution, as may be seen, was radically different +from that already considered, arising from the development of sacerdotal +influence and priestly power. They worked together, no doubt. The +establishment of the great primitive empires, as a peaceful process, was +greatly complicated by war, which tended steadily to increase the +temporal power of the ruler and enable him in time to control by the +sword alone. But it is interesting to find that long after the old +system was practically overthrown its shadow still lay upon the nations. +The powerful war monarchs of Assyria led their armies to conquest in the +name of the national deity, whose vicegerents they claimed to be. The +autocratic emperors of Rome went so far as to claim in some cases to be +gods themselves. Even in modern Russia some of this dignity pertains to +the emperor, as the supreme head of the national church. Old ideas are +proverbially hard to kill.</p> + +<p>But the mission of the priesthood by no means stopped here. The priests +rose to influence as the teachers as well as the leaders of the people. +The members of this class, set aside from manual occupations, and +devoted to thought upon the relations of man to the divine, played an +important part in the development of the human mind. As a result<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span> of +their speculative activity of thought the old religious systems sank +into the background; the simple worship of primitive times was +overshadowed by intricate mythological systems, splendid in worship and +creed; cosmogonies and philosophies were devised; and human thought, +once fairly set loose in this field, went on with great energy and +imaginative fervor.</p> + +<p>Literature arose as a result of this activity of thought. It took at +first the form of hymns, speculative essays, magical formulas, dogmas, +ordinances of worship, etc. By degrees it grew more secular in form, +until in the end secular literature arose. This was greatly stimulated +by the conditions of inequality arising from war. In the same manner as +the reward for merit in invention stimulated men to activity in the +mechanical arts, so the hope of reward for literary production stirred +up men to the composing of poems, histories, and other works of thought. +In both directions, physical and mental, men were stimulated to the most +active exertions by the conditions of inequality in wealth and power, +and the consequent desire to obtain a share of the money lavished by the +rich and the authority similarly lavished by the powerful.</p> + +<p>The broad general view here taken must suffice for our consideration of +this phase of human evolution. It brings the story of the development of +man closely up to the present stage of political<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span> and social +organizations and relations. It may be said, in conclusion of this +section of our work, that the powerful agency of war, so active and +important in the past, has in great part lost its utility in the +present, and bids fair to be brought to an end before the world is much +older. It is no longer needed, nearly or quite all that it is capable of +doing for mankind being accomplished, while the equally powerful +agencies of commerce, travel, leagues of nations, and other conditions +of modern origin have taken its place.</p> + +<p>War, while yielding many useful results, has given rise to others whose +utility is questionable, and whose ill-effects it will take much time +and effort to set aside. The inequality of power to which war gave rise +continues in many parts of the world, and the inequality of wealth shows +signs of increase instead of diminution. Once useful, they have +developed to an injurious extent. The result is a state of unrest, +discontent, and more or less active opposition, which constitutes a +condition of permanent conflict, a deep dissatisfaction with existing +institutions abnormal to a justly organized society. War has become in +great measure useless; but the scaffolding from which it built up the +edifice of civilization remains, and stands as a tottering ruin +threatening to engulf mankind in its fall.</p> + +<p>Ever since the triumph of autocracy in the Roman empire, the masses of +mankind have steadily protested against an inequality that is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span> alien to +the natural rights of man. For century after century the struggle +against undue exercise of power has gone on, and the hereditary lords of +mankind have lost, stage by stage, their usurped power, until in the +modern republic they have been replaced by the servants and chosen +agents of the people. But the autocracy of wealth still holds its own, +and is growing more and more formidable, and against this the wave of +opposition is now rising. Everywhere man is earnestly and sternly +demanding an equitable distribution of the productions of nature and +art. What the outcome of this demand will be it is impossible to say. It +must inevitably lead to some readjustment of the wealth of mankind; but +only the slow process of social evolution can decide what this shall be.</p> + +<p>We have endeavored in this brief treatise to trace the development of +man from his primeval state as a tree-dwelling animal in the depths of +the tropic woods, through the phases of his later condition as an erect +surface dweller, his conflict with and dominion over the animal kingdom, +his subsequent contest with the adverse powers of nature, and his final +warfare with his fellows and emergence into civilization. Each of these +contests has left its results; the first in the forest nomads of the +eastern tropics, the second in the patriarchal herding tribes of the +steppes and deserts, the village communities of Russia and the paternal +empire of China, the third in the enlightened nations of Europe and +America.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span>For how long a period this mighty drama of evolution has continued it is +impossible to say. Its first phase must have been of interminable +slowness; its second, while more rapid, still very deliberate; its third +of much greater rapidity, yet extending over several thousands of years. +Millions of years have probably passed away since it began, yet the +period involved is none too long for the magnitude of the results, whose +greatness can be seen if we contrast man's mental development with that +of the lower animals during this period. Physically, the development of +man has been inconsiderable—much less apparently than that of many +other animals. Mentally, it has been enormous. The whole of nature's +influences, in new and often adverse situations, have been brought to +bear upon man's mind, and as the result we have civilized man as +contrasted with the anthropoid ape. And the end is not yet. The era of +war in man's development is near its close, and a new era of peace, +under conditions of advanced mental and physical activity, seems about +to begin. Its outcome no man can predict, but it may far surpass in +beneficial results all that has gone before, and carry man upward to an +extraordinarily elevated mental plane.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span></p> + + +<h2><a name="XII" id="XII"></a>XII</h2> + +<h3>THE EVOLUTION OF MORALITY</h3> + + +<p>The evolution of man from his animal ancestry has been a composite +phenomenon, one by no means confined to the physical and intellectual +conditions which we have so far considered, but embracing also features +of moral and spiritual progress. The origin and growth of these need +also to be reviewed, if we would present a fully rounded sketch of human +evolution. So far as his physical form is concerned, man became +practically completed ages ago, as the supreme effort of nature in the +moulding and vitalizing of matter. When the arena of the struggle for +existence became transferred from the body to the mind, variation in the +body, once so active, rapidly declined; and with the full employment of +the intellect in the conflict with nature, physical evolution ceased, +except in minor particulars, and the organic structure of man became +practically fixed. The human animal, therefore, as a physical species, +has reached a stage of permanence. And this may be regarded as the +supreme result of material evolution in animals; or at least it may be +affirmed that, while man continues to exist, no member of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span> the lower +animal tribes can possibly develop to become his rival.</p> + +<p>But though man is not markedly distinct as a physical species from his +anthropoid ancestor, the process of evolution has not ceased, but has +gone on in him rapidly and immensely. The strain has simply been +transferred from the body to the mind, and to the extent that the mental +characteristics are more flexible and yield more readily to formative +influences, the mind has surpassed the body in rapidity of evolutionary +variation. Within a period during which the lower animals have remained +almost unchanged, man has varied enormously in mental conditions, and +to-day may be looked upon, not merely as a distinct species, but +practically as a new order, or class, of animals, as far removed +intellectually from the mammals below him as they are from the insects +or mollusks.</p> + +<p>If now we turn from the physical and intellectual to the ethical stage +of development, it will be to perceive as marked and decided a process +of evolution. The change has, perhaps, been even greater, since in the +lower animals the moral faculties are more rudimentary than the +intellectual. But, on the other hand, the moral development in man has +been much inferior to the intellectual. Therefore, though the foundation +was lower, the edifice has not reached nearly so great a height, and man +to-day stands in moral elevation considerably below his intellectual +level.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span>It was formerly the custom to look upon man as the only intellectual and +moral animal, the forms below him being credited solely with hereditary +instincts. This belief is no longer entertained by those familiar with +the results of modern research. Evidences of unquestionable powers of +thought have been traced in the lower animals, imagination and reason +being alike indicated. The elephant, for instance, is evidently a +thinking animal, and is capable of overcoming difficulties and adapting +itself to new situations, using methods not unlike those which man +himself might display under similar circumstances. Its gratitude for +favors and remembrance of and revenge for injuries are evidences of its +possession of the moral attributes. The recorded instances of displays +of reason in the dog, man's constant companion, are innumerable. +Intellectual attributes are still more pronounced in the ape tribe, as +indicated in a preceding chapter, where it was argued that man began his +development in intellect at a somewhat advanced stage.</p> + +<p>The same cannot be said in regard to his moral evolution. In this +respect the level from which man emerged was a much lower one. If his +moral growth may be symbolized as a great tree, it is one not very +deeply rooted in the world below him. Yet it doubtless has grown out of +the soil of animal life, and its finer tendrils and fibres may be traced +to a considerable depth in this fertile soil.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span>Before proceeding with this subject, it is important to devote some +attention to the characteristics of the moral attributes, concerning +which there is much diversity of opinion. There has been abundance of +theorizing upon the principles of ethics, thinkers dividing themselves +into two widely separated groups. In the one school, the intuitive, the +principles of morality are looked upon as inherent in the soul of man, +unfolding as the plant unfolds from its seed. In the other school, the +inductive, morality is claimed to be founded upon selfishness, the +moving principle of human actions being the desire to avoid pain and +attain pleasure. Each school makes a strong argument, which goes far to +indicate that each is based upon a truth, and therefore that neither has +the whole truth.</p> + +<p>The fault would appear to lie in the attempt to make morality a unit. In +our view this unity does not exist. While both schools may be partly +right, neither would seem to be wholly right, and they appear to be +pulling at the two ends of a single chain. Ethics, in short, may be +regarded as composed of unlike halves, which unite centrally to form a +whole. It may aid to reconcile the conflicting systems of theorists if +it be held that the inductive half of ethics is the product of the +reasoning powers and outer experience, the intuitive half the product of +feeling and inner development; while both meet and harmonize in life as +reason and feeling harmonize in the mind.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span>It is interesting to find that it is the intuitive, not the inductive, +element of the moral attributes that we find principally developed in +the lower animals. This is the outgrowth of instinct, not of thought; +the development of that principle of attraction which manifests itself +in all nature, and which, when associated with consciousness, becomes +what we know as love, affection, or sympathy. It is a powerful and +pervading force in all matter, intelligent and unintelligent, and in +conscious beings falls naturally among the emotions. Like all the +passions, it is instinctive in origin, though it may come under the +control of the intellect as the mind develops. In the lower animal world +it is manifested as a vigorous attraction, the sexual. In the higher +animals this attraction expands and grows complex. The attraction +between the sexes becomes love, and in its full unfoldment may join two +individuals together for life and influence most of their actions. To +the attraction between the sexes should be added that between parents +and children, the parental and filial, and that between associates, the +tribal or social, the latter, though weaker, of the same character.</p> + +<p>With these bonds reason has nothing to do. It does not form them and +would seek in vain to sever them. They belong to a part of the mental +constitution which lies outside the kingdom of thought, and they, +therefore, often act counter to the selfish consideration of personal +safety. The love bond,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span> indeed, in its full strength, seems to +constitute a partial loss of individuality. Mates will suffer pain and +endure physical injury for each other or for their offspring to as great +an extent as if these constituted a part of themselves, and as if their +actions were performed in self-defence.</p> + +<p>With this brief review of the philosophy of the ethical sentiments, we +may proceed to a consideration of the facts. While the rudimentary form +of the sentiment in question is manifest far down in the descending +grades of animal life, it expands into what we may fairly term love or +affection only in the higher forms. Romanes, in his "Animal +Intelligence," remarks: "As regards emotions, it is among birds that we +first meet with a conspicuous advance in the tenderer feelings of +affection and sympathy. Those relating to the sexes and the care of +progeny are in this class proverbial for their intensity, offering, in +fact, a favorite type for the poet and moralist. The pining of the +'love-bird' for its absent mate, and the keen distress of a hen on +losing her chickens, furnish abundant evidence of vivid feelings of the +kind in question. Even the stupid-looking ostrich has heart enough to +die for love, as was the case with a male in the Rotund of the Jardin +des Plantes, who, having lost his mate, pined rapidly away."</p> + +<p>Among social and communal animals the sentiment of sympathy widens to +embrace all the members of the tribe, a characteristic which is very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span> +strongly manifested in so low an organism as the ant. As an example of +this feeling among birds, Romanes quotes an interesting illustration +from Edward, the naturalist. The latter had shot and wounded a tern, but +before he could reach it, the helpless bird was carried off by its +companions. Two of these took hold of it by the wings and flew with it +several yards over the water. They then relinquished their burden to two +others, and the process continued in this way until they at length +reached a rock at some distance. When the hunter, eager for his prize, +pursued them, the sympathetic birds again took up their wounded +companion and flew off with it again over the water.</p> + +<p>Abundant instances of this sentiment of social affection could be quoted +from the mammalia. It is by no means confined to members of a species, +but may extend to very unlike species. No one needs to be told of the +warm affection so often shown by the dog for its master, a love which +will lead it to dare wounds or death in his service, or in the +protection of his property. This altruistic sentiment strongly exists in +the monkeys. Examples of the ardent feeling of these animals for their +fellows have been given in a preceding chapter, and many more might be +quoted, if necessary. It must suffice here to quote a single further +instance cited by Romanes, and relating to a small monkey which was +taken ill on shipboard, where there were several others of different +species.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span>"It had always been a favorite with the other monkeys, who seemed to +regard it as the last born and the pet of the family; and they granted +it many indulgences which they seldom conceded to one another. It was +very tractable and gentle in its temper, and never took advantage of the +partiality shown to it. From the moment it was taken ill, their +attention and care of it redoubled; and it was truly affecting and +interesting to see with what anxiety and tenderness they tended and +nursed the little creature. A struggle often ensued between them for +priority in these offices of affection; and some would steal one thing +and some another, which they would carry to it untasted, however +tempting it might be to their own palates. They would take it up gently +in their forepaws, hug it to their breasts, and cry over it as a fond +mother would over her suffering child."</p> + +<p>With the human race the love sentiment does not usually display the +singleness of energy shown among the lower animals. It is affected and +often checked in its development by an intricate series of influences, +which act on savage and civilized man alike. The family formed the +primitive human group, its linking elements being the sexual attraction +between man and woman and the fervent affection between parents and +children. These feelings, while strong in certain directions, were crude +and uneven. In savage tribes to-day the wife is an ill-treated drudge. +Yet the husband will protect his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span> wife and children from danger at risk +of his life. The maternal instinct seems still stronger. The mother +often acts as if the child were an actual part of herself. Danger or +injury to it produces in her a mental agony, the close equivalent of its +fear or pain, and she will endure suffering and peril in its protection +with an impulse beyond the control of reason.</p> + +<p>This sentiment, in a weakened form, extended from the family to the +group; and the success of man in gaining the mastery over the other +animals was doubtless greatly aided by the strong bond of social +affinity existing between the members of a group. They worked together +in a fuller sense than any other animals except the ants and bees.</p> + +<p>From the original social group another and closer community seems +gradually to have developed, the group of kindred. This was a natural +outgrowth from the family, whose bond of affection was extended to +include more distant relatives, until there emerged the organized group +of kindred known as the "Village Community," which seems everywhere to +have preceded civilization. This bond of kindred gradually extended, +combining men into larger and larger groups, until the clan, the horde, +and the tribe emerged, their members all linked together by the reality +or the fiction of common descent. Such was the form of organization that +existed in Greece and Rome in their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span> early days, and made its influence +felt far down into their later history. It existed indeed, at some +period, over almost all the earth.</p> + +<p>As the group widened, the bond of sympathy weakened. Love in the family +found its counterpart in fellow-feeling in the tribe, in patriotism in +the nation. It is undoubtedly true that desire for personal protection +is one of the strong influences which bind men into societies. The hope +of advantage in other directions and the pleasure of social intercourse +are other combining forces. Yet below these rational elements has always +abided the emotional element, the sympathetic attraction which binds +kindred closely together, and which exerts some degree of influence on +all members of the same group or nation.</p> + +<p>The development of the ethical principle in mankind is largely due to +the extension of the sentiment of social sympathy. For ages it was +confined to the immediate group. Such was the case even in civilized +Greece, intellectually one of the most advanced of peoples, but morally +very contracted. The Greeks were long divided into minor groups, with +the warmest sentiment of patriotism uniting the members of each +community, while their common origin bound all the Hellenes together. +But this feeling failed to cross the borders of the narrow peninsula of +Greece, all peoples beyond these borders being viewed as barbarians, in +whose pleasures and pains no interest was felt, and whose misfortunes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span> +produced no stir of sympathy in the Grecian heart. Even Aristotle taught +that Greeks owed no more duties to barbarians than to wild beasts, and a +philosopher who declared that his affection extended to the whole people +of Greece was thought to be remarkably sympathetic.</p> + +<p>The Romans were equally narrow in their early days, and not until the +empire extended to the outer borders of the civilized world did this +narrowness give way to a more expanded sympathy. The brotherhood of +mankind, indeed, was taught by Socrates, Cicero, and others of the +ancient moral philosophers, yet these seeds of philosophy fell in very +sterile soil and took root with discouraging slowness. Philosophers +elsewhere taught the dogma of universal love,—Confucius among the +Chinese, Gautama among the Hindoos,—but their teachings have borne +little fruit in the great, stagnant peoples of Asia, in whom the +narrowness of semicivilization prevails.</p> + +<p>The teachings of Christ, whose code of morality was the intuitive one, +"Love one another," have been far more effective. Christianity became +the religion of Europe, since then the most progressive part of the +world, and with every step of progress in civilization the Christ +doctrine of charity and sympathy reached a higher and broader stage. +To-day it has attained, in Europe and America, a wide degree of +development, and the vast extension of human intercourse through the +mediums of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span> travel, commerce, and telegraphic communication is, for the +first time in human history, beginning to lift the doctrine of the +universal brotherhood of man from the plane of a philosophic dogma +toward that of an established fact. The range of sympathy is narrow yet, +selfishness predominates, the truly altruistic are the few, the feebly +sympathetic and coldly selfish are the many; yet it must be admitted +that there has been a great development of altruism during the +nineteenth century, and the promise of the coming of Christ's kingdom on +the earth is greater to-day than at any former period in the history of +mankind.</p> + +<p>The love principle is the innate moral element of the universe. Its +rudimentary form is the attraction between atoms, which expands into the +attraction between spheres. We see a development of it in the magnetic +and electric attractions, and a higher one in the sexual attraction that +exists in the lowest organisms. Its expansion continues until it reaches +the high level of human love and social sympathy. But throughout its +whole development consciousness takes no part in its origin. While +conscious of its existence, we do not consciously call it into +existence. Men and women "fall in love"; they do not reason themselves +into affection. Those we love become in a measure a part of ourselves, +we feel their sufferings and endure their afflictions, not through the +nerves of the body, but through the finer ones of the mind,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span>—a plexus +of spiritual nerves which stretch unseen from soul to soul. So strong is +this sympathetic affinity that Comte was induced to look upon mankind as +an organism, and it gave rise in the mind of Leslie Stephens to the +conception of a common "social tissue."</p> + +<p>Love and law rule the universe. It is this second moral element, that of +law, which we have next to consider. Inductive morality had its origin +in experience; it assumed the form of social restriction, then of fixed +law and precept, and culminated in the sense of duty—a conscientious +avoidance of that which was thought to be wrong, and an earnest desire +to do what was looked upon as right.</p> + +<p>The history of this phase of morality differs essentially from that of +the phase we have just considered. The sense of duty, the conscientious +sentiment, so highly developed in man, seems largely non-existent in the +lower animals, so far as observation has taught us. Yet it is not quite +wanting, its rudiment is there, and this rudiment is capable of +development. It may be, indeed, that a highly developed sense of duty +exists in the ants and bees, to judge from their diligent labors for the +benefit of the community. But the clearest examples of conscientious +performance of duty are those seen in the case of the dog, in which +animal intimate association with man has developed something strongly +approaching a conscience. A dog needs only to be well treated to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span> +display a sense of dignity and a self-respect analogous to these +feelings in man. A sensitive resentment against injustice in high-caste +and carefully nurtured dogs has often been observed; while shame for an +act which the animal knows to be forbidden has been seen in a hundred +instances. The sense of duty is occasionally very strongly developed. +Many striking examples of this are on record. A dog will often defend +his master's property with the greatest devotion, letting no temptation +draw him away from the path of duty.</p> + +<p>An instance has been related to the writer in which an extraordinary +display of this feeling was made. A gentleman, on coming home at night, +found he had forgotten his key, and attempted to enter the house by the +window of a room in which his dog was on duty as a night-watch. To his +surprise and annoyance the animal would not permit him to enter, and +attacked him every time he tried to climb in. The animal knew him well, +responded to his attempts to fondle it, but the moment he made an +attempt to enter the window it became hostile and seemed ready to spring +upon him. In its small brain was the feeling that no one, master or +stranger, had the right to enter that house at night by the window, and +it was there to perform its duty without regard to persons. In the end, +the gentleman was obliged to leave and seek shelter elsewhere.</p> + +<p>The development of the sense of duty and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span> the growth of moral +restriction in primitive man were probably very slow, much more so than +the evolution of intelligence. The social habit of man doubtless +rendered necessary, at an early period, some restraints on the actions +of individuals, and these in time gained the strength of unwritten law; +but many of them were scarcely what we should call moral obligations. +Many such restrictions exist among savage tribes to-day, and to these we +must turn for examples of their character. We, for instance, look upon +theft and lying as immoral practices, but such is not the case with +savages generally, most of whom will steal if the opportunity offers, +while they will lie in so transparent and useless a manner as to +indicate that they see nothing wrong in this practice. And yet the +aborigines of India, many of whom are very immoral according to our +standard, are often strongly averse to untruthfulness. "A true Gond," +says Mr. Grant, "will commit a murder, but he will not tell a lie." It +is well known that truthfulness was one of the chief virtues of the +ancient Persians, a virtue that was accompanied by much which we would +call immoral. The Hindoo devotee is exceedingly tender of the lives of +animals, while he is often callous to human suffering. Disregard of +human suffering, indeed, showed itself strongly through all the past +ages, men being slaughtered with as little compunction as if they were +so many wild beasts, while fright<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span>ful tortures were inflicted with an +extraordinary absence of humane feeling. And these excesses were +committed by persons who in the ordinary affairs of life were frequently +tender in feeling and conscientious in action.</p> + +<p>In truth, moral development from this point of view has always shown a +one-sidedness that goes far to discredit the doctrine of intuitive +conceptions of right and wrong. The indications are strong that rules of +conduct are not inherent in the human mind, that men become moral to the +extent that they are taught the principles of justice, and grow +one-sided in their ideas of virtue through incompleteness in their moral +education. What we call sinfulness is largely a matter of custom and +convention. Men cannot properly be said to sin when their actions are +checked by no conscientious scruples, and what one people would consider +atrocious instances of wrong-doing, might be looked upon as innocent and +even estimable by a people with a different moral standard. Religion has +much to do with this. The human sacrifices and cannibal feasts of the +Aztec Indians, for instance, were regarded by them as good deeds, +obligations which they owed to their gods. Yet this people had attained +to some of the refined practices and moral ideas of civilization.</p> + +<p>The leading principles of correct human conduct are few and simple. They +were arrived at early in the history of human thought, and little has +since<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span> been added to them. They arose as results of human experience, as +necessary principles of restraint in developing communities, and were +nearly all extant in prehistoric times as the unwritten laws of social +organization. What creed-makers did was to put these ancient axioms of +morality on record, and offer them to the world as codes of religious +observance. They could not have been of primitive origin, since the most +of them do not exist among the savage tribes still with us. There is +nothing, indeed, to show that any idea of sinfulness exists in the minds +of the lowest savages, the rules of conduct which they possess being +such regulations as are necessary to the existence of the most +undeveloped community.</p> + +<p>Of the various codes of morals, much the best known to us is that given +to the Israelites by Moses, the famous "Ten Commandments." The most of +these—as of all such codes—were evidently legal in origin, rules +necessary for the existence of a civilized society, restrictions +controlling the conduct of men toward one another. It was the +creed-makers who first gave such legal restrictions the strength of +moral obligations, and announced that their infraction would be punished +by divine agencies, even if they should escape human retribution.</p> + +<p>Many hurtful acts, indeed, came to be viewed as crimes alike against God +and man, and punishable in the interests of both. Political and moral +obli<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span>gations thus shaded together; some of the evils of the world being +punished by human agencies alone, some by divine, some by both. It must +be said, however, that throughout the whole progress of human +civilization the influence of moral obligations has been rising, while +the necessity for political laws has declined in like proportion. In +ancient times the penalties for crimes against the community were +terribly severe, while religion threatened those who offended the divine +powers with frightful future punishments. The necessity for such severe +restrictions has long been decreasing, and the more vividly it is felt +that immoral deeds or debased thoughts and purposes will be visited by a +spiritual retribution, the less necessity is there for laws and +penalties. Thus the limitation of human actions by government is growing +less necessary than of old, in conformity with the growing sense of +spiritual degradation in evil and of spiritual elevation in good deeds. +Mild laws have succeeded the severe edicts of the past, and with a +considerable section of the community restrictive laws have become +useless, conscience taking the place of law. In such men the impulse to +evil deeds dies unfulfilled, and the penalty for wrong-doing within +themselves may be more severe than that which the community would +inflict. In the souls of such men sits a spiritual tribunal by which +evil thoughts are tried and punished before they can develop into evil +acts.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span>This consideration of the development of the moral principles and dogmas +has been necessarily brief. In what direction it is leading must be +evident to all, and we can with assurance look forward to a condition of +human society in which conscience will have become a stronger element of +the intellect than now, the sense of moral obligation a more prevailing +sentiment, and legal restriction a less necessary governmental +requirement.</p> + +<p>Of all the isms of the day altruism is far the noblest and most +promising. In this opponent of selfism, this regard for the rights and +happiness of others equally with our own, we find the link which binds +together the two halves of the moral principle. The love sentiment on +the one hand, the sense of duty on the other, meet and combine in the +zeal of altruism, for which a truly developed conscience is merely +another term. Those who have the good of others strongly at heart, who +are truly Christian in a practical realization of the brotherhood of +mankind, can safely be set free from all the reins of law, and trusted +to do the right thing from innate feeling instead of outside compulsion. +And, trusting in the future full development of the altruistic +sentiment, we can hopefully look forward to a time in which the moral +law will exist alone, conscience become the controlling force in human +actions, and government let fall the whip which it has so long held in +threat over the shrinking back of man.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span></p> + + +<h2><a name="XIII" id="XIII"></a>XIII</h2> + +<h3>MAN'S RELATION TO THE SPIRITUAL</h3> + + +<p>The purpose of this work has been to trace the evolutionary origin of +man, in his ascent from the lower animal world to his full stature as +the physical and intellectual monarch of the kingdom of life. But to +round up the story of human evolution it seemed necessary to consider +man from the moral standpoint, and it now appears equally desirable to +review his relations to the spiritual element of the universe. Having +dealt with the development of man as a mortal being, we have now to +regard him as a possibly immortal being.</p> + +<p>This outlook into the supreme domain of nature lifts us, for the first +time in our work, definitely above the lower world of life. There is +nothing to show that the animals below man have any conception of the +spiritual. It is true that there are various statements on record which +seem to indicate in some animals, the horse and the dog, for instance, a +dread of unseen powers, a recognition of some element in nature which is +invisible to the eyes of man. But what these facts indicate, what +influences affect the rudimentary intellect of these animals in such +instances, no one is able to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span> say. Though some vague recognition of +powers or existences beyond the visible may arise in their narrow minds, +it does not probably pass beyond the level of instinct, and doubtless +lies almost infinitely below man's conception of the spiritual. In this +stage of intellectual development, then, we have to do with a condition +which seems to belong solely to man, or has but a germinal existence in +the lower organic kingdom.</p> + +<p>In fact, primitive man may well have been as devoid of the conception of +a realm of spirit as was his anthropoid ancestor. The lowest savages of +to-day are almost, if not quite, lacking in such a conception, and are +destitute of anything that can fairly be called religion. Where apparent +religious ideas exist among them we cannot be sure to what extent they +have been infused by civilized visitors, or how far ardent missionaries, +in their anxiety to discover some trace of religion in savages, have +themselves inadvertently suggested the beliefs which they triumphantly +record. The Pygmies of Africa, the Negritos of Oceanica, and various +debased tribes elsewhere, may possibly be quite destitute of native +religious conceptions, at least of a higher grade than those which move +the horse and dog to a dread of the unseen. It should be borne in mind +that these tribes have for thousands of years been in some degree of +contact with more developed races and subject to educative influences, +and the crude religious conceptions<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span> which some travellers attribute to +them may well have been derived, not original.</p> + +<p>Investigation in this field certainly gives us abundant warrant to +believe that primitive man, on whose mind no influences of education +could act, was destitute of religion, and that man's conception of the +unseen arose gradually, as one important phase of the development of his +intellect. Any attempt to trace the stages of this religious development +is far beyond our purpose, even if we were capable of doing it. It must +suffice to say that man everywhere, when he emerges into history as a +semicivilized being, is abundantly supplied with mythological and other +religious conceptions which indicate a long preceding evolution in this +field of thought.</p> + +<p>For extended ages the realm of the unseen has been acting upon the mind +of man; filling him with dread of malevolent and reverence for +beneficent powers, inspiring him to acts of worship, peopling his +imagined heavens with imagined deities, and giving rise to an +extraordinary variety of deific tales and mythological ideas. The +literature of this subject would fill a library in itself, and is almost +abundant enough to supply one with reading for a lifetime. Yet it is +largely, if not wholly, ideal; it is in great part based on false +conceptions and misdirected imaginings; it rarely adduces evidence, and +such evidence as is offered is always questionable; in short, scientific +investi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span>gation and the critical pursuit of facts have taken no part in +the development of religious systems, and a deep cloud of doubt envelops +them all.</p> + +<p>It is by no means our purpose to seek to throw discredit on any of the +great religions of the world. To say that they have been products of +evolution is not to invalidate them. Much that is true and solid has +arisen through evolution. To say that they lack scientific evidence is +not to question their validity. Many of the subjects with which they +deal lie beyond the reach of scientific evidence. Science has hitherto +dealt strictly with the physical; it has made almost no effort to test +the claims of the spiritual. In fact, the highest of these claims, that +of the existence of a deity, must lie forever beyond its reach. God may +exist, and science grope for Him through eternity in vain. Finite facts +can never gauge the infinite. Proofs and disproofs alike have been +offered of the existence of an infinite deity, but the problem remains +unsolved. None of these proofs or disproofs are positive; they all +depend on ideal conceptions, and ideas are always open to question; +positive facts on either side of the argument are, and are always likely +to be, wanting, and the belief in God must be based on other than +scientific grounds.</p> + +<p>But when we come down to the lower levels of the domain of the spiritual +we find ourselves on firmer ground. Here we are dealing with the finite, +not with the infinite, and nothing that is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span> finite can lie beyond the +boundaries of investigation, however long it may take to reach it. The +question of the existence of spirits, for instance,—that much mooted +problem of the immortality, or at least of the future existence, of man, +which forms so prominent an element in modern religion,—dwells within +the possible reach of science, and the attempt to deal with it by +scientific evidence may reasonably be made. When we pass beyond the +realm of the senses we find ourselves in a kingdom peopled by stupendous +forms and forces,—space, time, matter, energy, and perhaps infinite +consciousness,—all in their ultimate conditions too vast for the finite +mind to grasp, all presenting problems open to speculation, but beyond +the reach of demonstration. But below these lie finite possibilities +which the human mind may now be, or may become, capable of +comprehending, and prominent among these lies the problem just +mentioned, that of the existence of a spiritual substratum in man, a +soul which is capable of surviving the death of the body. This is a +subject with which all of us are deeply and intimately concerned, and it +may be well to close this volume with a brief glance at its status as a +scientific question.</p> + +<p>The belief in the immortality of man is comparatively modern in origin. +There is no satisfactory evidence that any such belief existed among the +old Jews, or that it arose in Palestine before the time of Christ. It +arose at an earlier period in India<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span> and Persia, but everywhere it was +late in its appearance as a well-defined doctrine. Yet, while positive +evidence is wanting, there can be little doubt that crude and vaguely +formulated ideas of the existence of man after death have been very long +entertained. The traditions of all peoples that have a faith above that +of fetichism contain stories of the apparition of spirits of human +origin, and when we reach civilized peoples and more advanced religions +we find these in abundance. The annals of Christendom are full of them. +They are equally abundant in the centres of other developed forms of +faith. If we could accept these legends of the emergence of spirits +through the thin veil that separates time from eternity as established +facts, the problem would no longer need solution. As it stands, however, +the great mass of such narratives are utterly lacking in evidence of a +character which science can admit. They are bare, unsustained +statements, thousands of which would be far outweighed by a single one +fortified by demonstrated facts. Occasionally, indeed, the story of an +apparition has been closely investigated, and there are a few cases of +this kind handed down from the past which seem reasonably well +established. But any statement coming from prescientific days is open to +doubt; methods of investigation then were not what they are now; the +dogma of the existence of spirit is too important a one to be accepted +on any but incontroverti<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span>ble evidence, and the vast sum of statements of +apparitions which have come to us from the past, or from the +non-scientific peoples of the present, must be dismissed with the one +verdict, not proven.</p> + +<p>There is one important fact, however, connected with the question of +spiritual appearances, which is worthy of some consideration. It is a +fixed rule in the history of opinions that beliefs founded on +imagination or misconception have declined with the advance of +enlightenment, and many conceptions, once strongly entertained, have +faded and vanished in the light of new thought, or where retained have +been so only by the ignorant and unreasoning. It is of interest to find +that this has not been the case with the belief in spiritual +manifestations. This has held its own to the present time, and, while it +is largely sustained by the unintelligent and credulous, it can claim a +considerable body of intelligent adherents to-day, even in the most +enlightened nations. This belief, known as spiritism, with the +manifestations upon which it is founded, lies open, therefore, to modern +scientific investigation; and this has been, to some extent, applied to +it, with, in various instances, rather startling results.</p> + +<p>It is certainly of significance to find that a number of prominent +scientists, thoroughly skilled in the arts of investigation, have +attacked this problem with the purpose of annihilating it, and have +ended in becoming convinced of the truth of spirit<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span>ism. It may suffice +to mention two of the most striking instances of this. In the early days +of the spiritist propaganda, Robert Hare, a famous chemist of +Philadelphia, entered upon an investigation of the so-called spiritual +phenomena with the declared purpose of proving them to be fraudulent. +His observations were long continued, his tests varied and delicate, and +he ended by himself ardently adopting the belief he had set out to +abolish. Somewhat later William Crookes of London, an equally famous +chemist and physicist, entered upon a similar investigation, and with +like results. The tests applied by these men were strictly scientific, +and of the exhaustive character suggested by their long experience in +chemical investigation; and their conversion to the tenets of spiritism, +as a result of their experiments, was a marked triumph to the advocates +of the doctrine. Various others of admitted high intelligence, who made +a similar investigation and were similarly converted, might be named. +Two of the best known of these were Judge Edmonds, of the circuit court +of New York, and Alfred Russel Wallace of England, who shared with +Darwin the honor of originating the theory of natural selection.</p> + +<p>While these, and others of scientific education, were converted to +spiritism, many investigators came to an opposite conclusion, while a +similar negative result was reached in the investigations of several +committees of scientists. The latest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span> and most persistent attempt to +search into the reality of phenomena of this character has been that +made by the London Society for Psychical Research, whose investigations +have extended over years and have yielded numerous striking and +suggestive results. The most important conclusion at which the members +of this society have so far arrived is the hypothesis of Telepathy, or +the seeming power of one mind to influence the thoughts of another, +occasionally over long distances, in a method that appears analogous to +that of wireless telegraphy. The evidences in favor of this doctrine are +so numerous that it has been somewhat widely accepted, and the title +applied to it has come into general use. It indicates, if true, +remarkable powers in the mind of man, capabilities that seem far to +transcend those of the ordinary intellectual activities.</p> + +<p>This is one side of the case. The other side now calls for presentation. +This is that the great body of scientists utterly reject the theory of +spiritism, and look upon its manifestations as due to fraud, +misconception, credulity, or some other of the weaknesses to which human +nature is liable. As regards the opinions arrived at by the prominent +scientists mentioned, these men are looked upon by their fellows of the +great scientific body as mentally warped, or as having allowed +themselves to be victimized by impostors. The fact that Professor +Crookes has continued one of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span> most acute and deep searching of +investigators into the phenomena of physics, and that his results in +this direction are accepted without question, and that Professor Wallace +is acknowledged to be one of the leading thinkers of the day, has not +sufficed to clear them of the doubt which rests upon their sanity or +their critical judgment in this particular, and the very attempt of any +one to investigate the so-called spiritual manifestations is widely +looked upon as an evidence of credulity or some greater mental weakness.</p> + +<p>This result may seem singular, yet it is not without abundant warrant. +It must be borne in mind that the phenomena in question differ +essentially in character from those with which science is usually +concerned. The field of scientific investigation is distinctly the +material; the facts with which it deals are those apparent to the +senses, or which can be tested by material instruments; its discoveries +are generally susceptible of but one interpretation; its methods are +capable of being indefinitely repeated, and its results, if justly +interpreted, are unvarying in character. None of these postulates fully +applies to the spiritistic investigation. Here the conditions differ, +the results vary, the methods can rarely be exactly repeated, conscious +beings, instead of unconscious instruments, are the agents employed, and +the secret thoughts and purposes of such agents are very likely to +vitiate the result, and open a field of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span> doubt which does not exist in +the investigation of the inorganic world.</p> + +<p>This is one of the causes of the doubt of scientists. It is not the only +or the chief cause. The latter is the fact that the claims of spiritism +lift man into an entirely new domain of the universe, remove him from +the great field of the material with which he is physically affiliated +and to which his senses are closely adapted, and place him in a region +beyond the scope of the senses, a vast kingdom which is held to underlie +or subtend the physical, and which the ordinary outlook of the scientist +fails to perceive. It requires no strain of the imagination to admit the +existence of a new constituent of the atmosphere. It requires a great +strain to admit the existence of a new constituent of the universe, a +vast spiritual substratum to the domain of matter. Religion, with its +ideal tests, has long maintained this to be a fact. Science, with its +rigid material tests, sternly questions it, and demands that the +existence of an inhabited spiritual realm shall be incontestably proved +by scientific evidence before it can be accepted.</p> + +<p>This demand is a reasonable one. The world is growing rapidly more +scientific, and the old method of arriving at conclusions is daily +losing strength. Beliefs based on ideal or imaginative postulates, once +strong, are now weak. Faith founded on ancient authority is active +still, but promises to become obsolete. The way of science is growing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span> +to be the way of the world, and in the time to come intelligent men will +doubtless demand incontestable evidence of any fact which they are asked +to accept.</p> + +<p>As regards the phenomena in question, however, it cannot be said that +they have been fairly or fully investigated by scientists. They have +been set down as the work of charlatans, and their apparent results +ascribed to fraud, collusion, credulity, and mental obliquity in +general. The fact, that of the scientists who have exhaustively +investigated the spiritistic phenomena, a considerable number have +accepted them as valid, has had no effect upon scientists as a body, +who, in this particular, occupy the position which they accuse +non-scientists of maintaining, that of forming opinions without +investigating phenomena.</p> + +<p>This attitude of the scientific world toward these problematical +occurrences is quite comprehensible. Throughout the nineteenth century +the attention of scientists has been almost wholly directed toward the +investigation of the forms and forces of matter, the phenomena and +principles of the visible universe. In this they entered, at the opening +of the century, upon an almost virgin field, which they have wrought +with great diligence and with remarkable results. It is very possible, +however, that in the twentieth century no such undivided allegiance will +be given to the phenomena of matter, but that the attention of +scientists<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span> will be largely diverted from the physical to the psychical +field of investigation, which may prove to be a far broader and more +intricate domain than we now have any conception of.</p> + +<p>Psychical phenomena have attracted some attention during the recent +century. One by one the problems of hypnotism, unconscious cerebration, +double consciousness, telepathy, spiritism, and the like, all at first +set down as unworthy of consideration, have forced themselves upon the +attention of observers, and each of them has been found to present +conditions amply worthy of investigation. This work has hitherto been +performed by occasional individuals, but the number of workers in +experimental psychics is steadily increasing, and their domain of +research broadening, and we may reasonably look forward to results +approaching, perhaps exceeding, in interest those reached in material +investigation.</p> + +<p>There is a whole world before us, that of the mind and its phenomena, +fully equal in interest and importance to the world of matter, and +presenting as numerous and difficult problems. Hitherto it has largely +been dealt with from the ideal or metaphysical standpoint; only recently +has it been subjected to physical analysis, and already with striking +results. During the century before us it is likely to attract a wide and +active circle of investigators, with what results it is impossible to +predict. This is the only way in which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span> the problem of the existence or +non-existence of a spiritual life can be solved to the satisfaction of +those of a scientific turn of mind, and this solution must be left to +the future to attain.</p> + +<p>In the present work we are concerned with man's past rather than his +future. It is what man has come from, not what he is going to, that +forms the subject of our inquiries. We have been led into these remarks +simply as an outcome of a brief consideration of man's relations to the +spiritual element of the universe, and may close our work with the +suggestion that the problem of human evolution may be immensely greater +than that involved in the study of the ancestry of man.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<p class="fm2">THE DAWN OF REASON Or, Mental Traits in the Lower Animals</p> + +<p class="fm3">By JAMES WEIR, Jr., M.D.</p> + +<p class="fm4"><i>Author of "The Psychical Correlation of Religious Emotion and Sexual +Desire" etc.</i></p> + +<p class="fm3">16mo. Cloth. $1.25</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><b>Review of Reviews.</b></p> + +<p>"This book presents evidences of mental action of the lower animals in a +clear, simple, and brief form. The author has avoided technicalities, +and has also resisted the temptation of the psychologist to indulge in +metaphysics. Dr. Weir has relied for evidence on the results of his own +independent study of biology at first hand, disregarding the second-hand +data used by many of the authors once regarded as standard authorities +in this department of research."</p> + +<p><b>The Nation:</b></p> + +<p>"The title raised in our mind some vague fears that we might find +physiology and psychology mixed up inexpertly with metaphysics; but we +see in the writer a close observer, who takes his stand on firm ground, +and goes into the objective world of animals for his facts."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="fm2">THE MACMILLAN COMPANY</p> + +<p class="fm3">66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="transnote"> +<h3>Transcriber's note<a name="tnotes" id="tnotes"></a></h3> + +<p> +The following changes have been made to the text:</p> + + +<p>Page 133: "these forests dwarfs" changed to "these +<a name="cn1" id="cn1"></a><a href="#corr1">forest</a> dwarfs".</p> + +<p>Page 146: "adepts in the art of concealment" changed to +"<a name="cn2" id="cn2"></a><a href="#corr2">adept</a> in the +art of concealment".</p> +</div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Man And His Ancestor, by Charles Morris + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MAN AND HIS ANCESTOR *** + +***** This file should be named 28471-h.htm or 28471-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/8/4/7/28471/ + +Produced by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Carla Foust, and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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