Illustrations of Universal Progress: A Series of DiscussionsSpencer, Herbert
Philosophy
Illustrations of Universal Progress: A Series of Discussions
Spencer, Herbert
Philosophy; Political science; Science
In proof of the first of these positions, we may cite the fact that, in the
relative development of the limbs, the civilized man departs more widely
from the general type of the placental mammalia than do the lower human
races. While often possessing well-developed body and arms, the Papuan has
extremely small legs: thus reminding us of the quadrumana, in which there
is no great contrast in size between the hind and fore limbs. But in the
European, the greater length and massiveness of the legs has become very
marked--the fore and hind limbs are relatively more heterogeneous. Again,
the greater ratio which the cranial bones bear to the facial bones
illustrates the same truth. Among the vertebrata in general, progress is
marked by an increasing heterogeneity in the vertebral column, and more
especially in the vertebrae constituting the skull: the higher forms being
distinguished by the relatively larger size of the bones which cover the
brain, and the relatively smaller size of those which form the jaw, &c.
Now, this characteristic, which is stronger in Man than in any other
creature, is stronger in the European than in the savage. Moreover, judging
from the greater extent and variety of faculty he exhibits, we may infer
that the civilized man has also a more complex or heterogeneous nervous
system than the uncivilized man: and indeed the fact is in part visible in
the increased ratio which his cerebrum bears to the subjacent ganglia.
If further elucidation be needed, we may find it in every nursery. The
infant European has sundry marked points of resemblance to the lower human
races; as in the flatness of the alae of the nose, the depression of its
bridge, the divergence and forward opening of the nostrils, the form of the
lips, the absence of a frontal sinus, the width between the eyes, the
smallness of the legs. Now, as the developmental process by which these
traits are turned into those of the adult European, is a continuation of
that change from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous displayed during the
previous evolution of the embryo, which every physiologist will admit; it
follows that the parallel developmental process by which the like traits of
the barbarous races have been turned into those of the civilized races, has
also been a continuation of the change from the homogeneous to the
heterogeneous. The truth of the second position--that Mankind, as a whole,
have become more heterogeneous--is so obvious as scarcely to need
illustration. Every work on Ethnology, by its divisions and subdivisions of
races, bears testimony to it. Even were we to admit the hypothesis that
Mankind originated from several separate stocks, it would still remain
true, that as, from each of these stocks, there have sprung many now widely
different tribes, which are proved by philological evidence to have had a
common origin, the race as a whole is far less homogeneous than it once
was. Add to which, that we have, in the Anglo-Americans, an example of a
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