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davidford
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Darwin
literature.org/authors/darwin-charles/the-descent-of-man/chapter-05.html
Natural Selection as affecting Civilised Nations.- I have
hitherto only considered the advancement of man from a
semi-human condition to that of the modern savage. But
some remarks on the action of natural selection on
civilised nations may be worth adding. This subject has
been ably discussed by Mr. W. R. Greg,* and
previously by Mr. Wallace and Mr. Galton.*(2) Most of
my remarks are taken from these three authors. With
savages, the weak in body or mind are soon eliminated;
and those that survive commonly exhibit a vigorous state
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Looking to future generations, there is no
cause to fear that the social instincts will grow weaker,
and we may expect that virtuous habits will grow
stronger, becoming perhaps fixed by inheritance. In this
case the struggle between our higher and lower impulses
will be less severe, and virtue will be triumphant.
literature.org/authors/darwin-charles/the-descent-of-man/chapter-05.html
Natural Selection as affecting Civilised Nations.- I have
hitherto only considered the advancement of man from a
semi-human condition to that of the modern savage. But
some remarks on the action of natural selection on
civilised nations may be worth adding. This subject has
been ably discussed by Mr. W. R. Greg,* and
previously by Mr. Wallace and Mr. Galton.*(2) Most of
my remarks are taken from these three authors. With
savages, the weak in body or mind are soon eliminated;
and those that survive commonly exhibit a vigorous state
Code:
of health. We civilised men, on the other hand, do our
utmost to check the process of elimination; we build
asylums for the imbecile, the maimed, and the sick; we
institute poor-laws; and our medical men exert their
utmost skill to save the life of every one to the last
moment. There is reason to believe that vaccination has
preserved thousands, who from a weak constitution
would formerly have succumbed to small-pox. Thus the
weak members of civilised societies propagate their kind.
No one who has attended to the breeding of domestic
animals will doubt that this must be highly injurious to the
race of man. It is surprising how soon a want of care, or
care wrongly directed, leads to the degeneration of a
domestic race; but excepting in the case of man himself,
hardly any one is so ignorant as to allow his worst
animals to breed.///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Darwin
literature.org/authors/darwin-charles/the-descent-of-man/chapter-04.html
But as man gradually advanced in intellectual power, and was
enabled to trace the more remote consequences of his
actions; as he acquired sufficient knowledge to reject
baneful customs and superstitions; as he regarded more
and more, not only the welfare, but the happiness of his
fellow-men; as from habit, following on beneficial
experience, instruction and example, his sympathies
became more tender and widely diffused, extending to
men of all races, to the imbecile, maimed, and other
useless members of society, and finally to the lower
animals,- so would the standard of his morality rise higher
and higher. And it is admitted by moralists of the
derivative school and by some intuitionists, that the
standard of morality has risen since an early period in the
history of man.*
Looking to future generations, there is nocause to fear that the social instincts will grow weaker,
and we may expect that virtuous habits will grow
stronger, becoming perhaps fixed by inheritance. In this
case the struggle between our higher and lower impulses
will be less severe, and virtue will be triumphant.
