wider apart, than the size and
development of man's brain, and the distribution of hair upon the
surface of his body; yet they both lead us to the same conclusion--that
some other power than Natural Selection has been engaged in his
production.

_Feet and Hands of Man, considered as Difficulties on the Theory of
Natural Selection._

There are a few other physical characteristics of man, that may just be
mentioned as offering similar difficulties, though I do not attach the
same importance to them as to those I have already dwelt on. The
specialization and perfection of the hands and feet of man seems
difficult to account for. Throughout the whole of the quadrumana the
foot is prehensile; and a very rigid selection must therefore have been
needed to bring about that arrangement of the bones and muscles, which
has converted the thumb into a great toe, so completely, that the power
of opposability is totally lost in every race, whatever some travellers
may vaguely assert to the contrary. It is difficult to see why the
prehensile power should have been taken away. It must certainly have
been useful in climbing, and the case of the baboons shows that it is
quite compatible with terrestrial locomotion. It may not be compatible
with perfectly easy erect locomotion; but, then, how can we conceive
that early man, _as an animal_, gained anything by purely erect
locomotion? Again, the hand of man contains latent capacities and powers
which are unused by savages, and must have been even less used by
palaeolithic man and his still ruder predecessors. It has all the
appearance of an organ prepared for the use of civilized man, and one
which was required to render civilization possible. Apes make little use
of their separate fingers and opposable thumbs. They grasp objects
rudely and clumsily, and look as if a much less specialized extremity
would have served their purpose as well. I do not lay much stress on
this, but, if it be proved that some intelligent power has guided or
determined the development of man, then we may see indications of that
power, in facts which, by themselves, would not serve to prove its
existence.

_The voice of man._--The same remark will apply to another peculiarly
human character, the wonderful power, range, flexibility, and sweetness,
of the musical sounds producible by the human larynx, especially in the
female sex. The habits of savages give no indication of how this faculty
could have been develo