Those anthropologists who insist on making man a being apart in the universe shut their eyes to these gross aberrations. Evolutionists are not so timid, and do not fear to face the truth. If, as it is impossible to deny, man is subject to the laws of evolution like all other beings, we are forced to admit that he must have passed through very inferior phases of physical and moral development. _Homo sapiens_ surely descends from an ancient pithecoid ancestor, and this original blot has necessarily been a drawback to his moral evolution. But here it is important to make a distinction. The resemblance between the moral coarseness of the savage and the depravation of the civilised man is quite superficial. Who thinks of being shocked at the morals of animals? Now those of primitive man are quite as innocent, and the brutality of the savage has nothing in common with the moral retrogression of the civilised man struck with decay. How unlike is the Aleout, imitating the sea-otter, without thinking any evil, to the European degraded by the vices of our civilisation! For the latter the future is closed; there are some declivities that can never be remounted. The posterity of the savage, on the contrary, may, with the aid of time and culture, attain to great moral elevation, for there are vital forces within him which are fresh and intact. The primitive man is still young, and he possesses many latent energies susceptible of development. In short, the savage is a child, while the civilised man, whose moral nature is corrupt, presents to us rather the picture of decrepid old age. FOOTNOTES: [112] _L’Évolution de la Morale._ [113] Wake, vol. i. p. 77. [114] _Id._ vol. i. p. 71. [115] H. Spencer, _Sociology_, vol. ii. p. 213. [116] Wake, vol. i. p. 205. [117] Giraud-Teulon, _Orig. de la Famille_, p. 68. [118] Parry (_Third Voyage_), _Hist. Univ. des Voyages_, t. xl. p. 456. [119] Giraud-Teulon, _loc. cit._, p. 96. [120] Élie Reclus, _Les Primitifs_, p. 70. [121] Élie Reclus, _Les Primitifs_, p. 80. [122] Carver, _Travels in North America_, p. 245. [123] De Varigny, _Quatorze ans aux îles Sandwich_, p. 159. [124] Wallis, _Hist. Univ. des Voy._, t. xviii. p. 364.--Edwards, _ibid._ t. xiii. p. 426. [125] Porter, _Hist. Univ. des Voy._, t. xvi. p. 232. [126] Marchand, _ibid._ t. xv. p. 406.--Moerenhout, _Voy. aux îles_, t. I^{er.} p. 313. [127] Porter, _Hist. Univ. des Voy._, t. xvi. p. 229. [128] _Id., loc. cit._, t. xvi. p. 245. [129] _Ibid._ t. xix. p. 213. [130] Wake, _Evolution of Morality_, vol. i. p. 79. [131] Moerenhout, _Voy. aux îles_, etc., t. ii. p. 56. [132] Moerenhout, _Voy. aux îles_, etc., t. I^{er.} p. 206. [133] Cook, _Hist. Univ. des Voy._, t. v. p. 268. [134] Moerenhout, _loc. cit._, t. I^{er.} p. 229. [135] Bourgarel, _Des Races de l’Océanie française_, in _Mém. Soc. d’Anthropologie_, t. ii. p. 390.--De Rochas, _Nouvelle Calédonie_, p. 235.