period, of which we have not as yet any record, the races of man had
already come to differ nearly or quite as much as they do at the
present day.
The views here advanced, on the part which sexual selection has played
in the history of man, want scientific precision. He who does not admit
this agency in the case of the lower animals, will disregard all that I
have written in the later chapters on man. We cannot positively say
that this character, but not that, has been thus modified; it has,
however, been shewn that the races of man differ from each other and
from their nearest allies, in certain characters which are of no
service to them in their daily habits of life, and which it is
extremely probable would have been modified through sexual selection.
We have seen that with the lowest savages the people of each tribe
admire their own characteristic qualities, the shape of the head and
face, the squareness of the cheek-bones, the prominence or depression
of the nose, the colour of the skin, the length of the hair on the
head, the absence of hair on the face and body, or the presence of a
great beard, and so forth. Hence these and other such points could
hardly fail to be slowly and gradually exaggerated, from the more
powerful and able men in each tribe, who would succeed in rearing the
largest number of offspring, having selected during many generations
for their wives the most strongly characterised and therefore most
attractive women. For my own part I conclude that of all the causes
which have led to the differences in external appearance between the
races of man, and to a certain extent between man and the lower
animals, sexual selection has been the most efficient.
CHAPTER XXI.
GENERAL A SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION.
Main conclusion that man is descended from some lower form Manner of
development Genealogy of man Intellectual and moral faculties Sexual
Selection Concluding remarks.
A brief summary will be sufficient to recall to the reader s mind the
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