agency may be safely attributed the social instincts, which afforded
the basis for the development of the moral sense.
The main conclusion arrived at in this work, namely, that man is
descended from some lowly organised form, will, I regret to think, be
highly distasteful to many. But there can hardly be a doubt that we are
descended from barbarians. The astonishment which I felt on first
seeing a party of Fuegians on a wild and broken shore will never be
forgotten by me, for the reflection at once rushed into my mind such
were our ancestors. These men were absolutely naked and bedaubed with
paint, their long hair was tangled, their mouths frothed with
excitement, and their expression was wild, startled, and distrustful.
They possessed hardly any arts, and like wild animals lived on what
they could catch; they had no government, and were merciless to every
one not of their own small tribe. He who has seen a savage in his
native land will not feel much shame, if forced to acknowledge that the
blood of some more humble creature flows in his veins. For my own part
I would as soon be descended from that heroic little monkey, who braved
his dreaded enemy in order to save the life of his keeper, or from that
old baboon, who descending from the mountains, carried away in triumph
his young comrade from a crowd of astonished dogs as from a savage who
delights to torture his enemies, offers up bloody sacrifices, practices
infanticide without remorse, treats his wives like slaves, knows no
decency, and is haunted by the grossest superstitions.
Man may be excused for feeling some pride at having risen, though not
through his own exertions, to the very summit of the organic scale; and
the fact of his having thus risen, instead of having been aboriginally
placed there, may give him hope for a still higher destiny in the
distant future. But we are not here concerned with hopes or fears, only
with the truth as far as our reason permits us to discover it; and I
have given the evidence to the best of my ability. We must, however,
acknowledge, as it seems to me, that man with all his noble qualities,
with sympathy which feels for the most debased, with benevolence which
extends not only to other men but to the humblest living creature, with
his god-like intellect which has penetrated into the movements and
constitution of the solar system with all these exalted powers Man
still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly
origin.
646