Darwiniana : Essays — Volume 02Huxley, Thomas Henry
Science
Darwiniana : Essays — Volume 02
Huxley, Thomas Henry
Darwin, Charles, 1809-1882; Evolution (Biology)
If I understand him rightly, he by no means doubts that both the bodily and
the mental faculties of man have been evolved from those of some lower
animal; but he is of opinion that some agency beyond that which has been
concerned in the evolution of ordinary animals has been operative in the
case of man. "A superior intelligence has guided the development of man in
a definite direction and for a special purpose, just as man guides the
development of many animal and vegetable forms." [Footnote: "The Limits of
Natural Selection as applied to Man" (_loc. cit._ p. 359).] I
understand this to mean that, just as the rock-pigeon has been produced by
natural causes, while the evolution of the tumbler from the blue rock has
required the special intervention of the intelligence of man, so some
anthropoid form may have been evolved by variation and natural selection;
but it could never have given rise to man, unless some superior
intelligence had played the part of the pigeon-fancier.
According to Mr. Wallace, "whether we compare the savage with the higher
developments of man, or with the brutes around him, we are alike driven to
the conclusion, that, in his large and well-developed brain, he possesses
an organ quite disproportioned to his requirements" (p. 343); and he asks,
"What is there in the life of the savage but the satisfying of the cravings
of appetite in the simplest and easiest way? What thoughts, idea, or
actions are there that raise him many grades above the elephant or the
ape?" (p. 342.) I answer Mr. Wallace by citing a remarkable passage which
occurs in his instructive paper on "Instinct in Man and Animals."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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