The Origin of Human Races and the Antiquity of Man Deduced from Natural Selection

Selection immediately comes into play, and through its action, these organs gradually become adapted to their new requirements. But man, under similar circumstances, does not require longer nails or teeth, or greater bodily strength or speed. He makes sharper spears, or a better bow, or he constructs a clever pitfall, or joins a hunting party to outwit original: "circumvent" his new prey. The capacities which enable him to do this are what he needs to be strengthened, and these will, therefore, be gradually modified by "natural selection," while the form and structure of his body will remain unchanged. So, when an ice age glacial epoch begins, some animals must grow warmer fur, or a covering of fat, or else die of cold. Those best clothed by nature are, therefore, preserved by natural selection. Man, under the same circumstances, will make himself warmer clothing and build better houses; the necessity of doing this will react upon his mental organization and social condition—it will advance them while his natural body remains naked as before.

When the accustomed food of some animal becomes scarce or fails entirely, it can only survive by becoming adapted to a new kind of food—a food perhaps less nourishing and less digestible. "Natural selection" will now act upon the stomach and intestines, and all their individual variations will be taken advantage of to modify the race into harmony with its new food. In many cases, however, it is probable that this cannot be done. The internal organs may not vary quickly enough, and then the animal will decrease in numbers and finally become extinct. But man guards himself from such accidents by overseeing and guiding the operations of nature. He plants the seed of his most agreeable food, and thus secures a supply independent of the accidents of changing seasons or natural extinction. He domesticates animals which serve him either to capture food or as food itself, and thus any major changes in his teeth or digestive organs are rendered unnecessary. Man, too, has the use of fire everywhere, and by its means can make palatable a variety of animal and vegetable substances which he could hardly make use of otherwise; he thus obtains for himself a supply of food far more varied and abundant than that which any animal can command.

Thus man, by the mere capacity of clothing himself and making weapons and tools, has taken away from nature that power of changing the external form and structure which she exercises over all other animals. As the competing species by which they are surrounded, the climate, the vegetation, or the animals which serve them for food are slowly changing, they must undergo a corresponding change in their structure, habits, and constitution to keep them in harmony with the new conditions—to enable them to live and maintain their numbers. But man does this by means of his intellect alone, which enables him to stay in harmony with the changing universe while his body remains unchanged.

From the time, therefore, when social and sympathetic feelings came into active operation, and the intellectual and moral faculties became fairly developed, man would cease to be influenced by "natural selection" in his physical form and structure; as an