Darwiniana : Essays — Volume 02Huxley, Thomas Henry
Science
Darwiniana : Essays — Volume 02
Huxley, Thomas Henry
Darwin, Charles, 1809-1882; Evolution (Biology)
I have seen enough of savages to be able to declare that nothing can be
more admirable than this description of what a savage has to learn. But it
is incomplete. Add to all this the knowledge which a savage is obliged to
gain of the properties of plants, of the characters and habits of animals,
and of the minute indications by which their course is discoverable:
consider that even an Australian can make excellent baskets and nets, and
neatly fitted and beautifully balanced spears; that he learns to use these
so as to be able to transfix a quartern loaf at sixty yards; and that very
often, as in the case of the American Indians, the language of a savage
exhibits complexities which a well-trained European finds it difficult to
master: consider that every time a savage tracks his game he employs a
minuteness of observation, and an accuracy of inductive and deductive
reasoning which, applied to other matters, would assure some reputation to
a man of science, and I think we need ask no further why he possesses such
a fair supply of brains. In complexity and difficulty, I should say that
the intellectual labour of a "good hunter or warrior" considerably exceeds
that of an ordinary Englishman. The Civil Service Examiners are held in
great terror by young Englishmen; but even their ferocity never tempted
them to require a candidate to possess such a knowledge of a parish as Mr.
Wallace justly points out savages may possess of an area a hundred miles or
more in diameter.
But suppose, for the sake of argument, that a savage has more brains than
seems proportioned to his wants, all that can be said is that the objection
to natural selection, if it be one, applies quite as strongly to the lower
animals. The brain of a porpoise is quite wonderful for its mass, and for
the development of the cerebral convolutions. And yet since we have ceased
to credit the story of Arion, it is hard to believe that porpoises are much
troubled with intellect: and still more difficult is it to imagine that
their big brains are only a preparation for the advent of some accomplished
cetacean of the future. Surely, again, a wolf must have too much brains, or
else how is it that a dog with only the same quantity and form of brain is
able to develop such singular intelligence? The wolf stands to the dog in
the same relation as the savage to the man; and, therefore, if Mr.
Wallace's doctrine holds good, a higher power must have superintended the
breeding up of wolves from some inferior stock, in order to prepare them to
become dogs.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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