ick are assisted, at least with
food; less robust health and vigour than the average does not entail
death. Neither does the want of perfect limbs, or other organs, produce
the same effects as among animals. Some division of labour takes place;
the swiftest hunt, the less active fish, or gather fruits; food is, to
some extent, exchanged or divided. The action of natural selection is
therefore checked; the weaker, the dwarfish, those of less active limbs,
or less piercing eyesight, do not suffer the extreme penalty which falls
upon animals so defective.

In proportion as these physical characteristics become of less
importance, mental and moral qualities will have increasing influence on
the well-being of the race. Capacity for acting in concert for
protection, and for the acquisition of food and shelter; sympathy, which
leads all in turn to assist each other; the sense of right, which checks
depredations upon our fellows; the smaller development of the combative
and destructive propensities; self-restraint in present appetites; and
that intelligent foresight which prepares for the future, are all
qualities, that from their earliest appearance must have been for the
benefit of each community, and would, therefore, have become the
subjects of "natural selection." For it is evident that such qualities
would be for the well-being of man; would guard him against external
enemies, against internal dissensions, and against the effects of
inclement seasons and impending famine, more surely than could any
merely physical modification. Tribes in which such mental and moral
qualities were predominant, would therefore have an advantage in the
struggle for existence over other tribes in which they were less
developed, would live and maintain their numbers, while the others would
decrease and finally succumb.

Again, when any slow changes of physical geography, or of climate, make
it necessary for an animal to alter its food, its clothing, or its
weapons, it can only do so by the occurrence of a corresponding change
in its own bodily structure and internal organization. If a larger or
more powerful beast is to be captured and devoured, as when a
carnivorous animal which has hitherto preyed on antelopes is obliged
from their decreasing numbers to attack buffaloes, it is only the
strongest who can hold,--those with most powerful claws, and formidable
canine teeth, that can struggle with and overcome such an animal.
Natural selection