of the cunning and alertness of the apes,
their power of observation, their combination for defence and attack,
and their general mental superiority to the tenants of the animal world,
their supremacy in the event of their becoming carnivorous must have
been confined to the smaller creatures, and could not have been
established over the larger animals of their native habitat except
through the aid of other than their natural powers.

It was by the use of artificial weapons that the conquest was gained.
The tendency to use missiles as weapons of offence and defence, which is
shown by various species of monkeys, was in all probability greatly
developed by the man-ape, the only carnivorous member, if our premises
are correct, of the whole extensive family of the apes, and the only one
with the free use of its hands and arms. By the use of weapons of this
kind the powers of offence of this animal were enormously increased. As
skill was acquired in their use, and more efficient weapons were
selected or formed, the man-ape steadily advanced in controlling
influence, and the lower animal world became more and more subordinated.
No doubt the struggle was a protracted one. The previously dominant
animals did not submit without a severe and long-continued contest.
Thousands of years may have passed before the larger animals were
subdued, for it is probable that the invention of superior weapons by an
animal of low mental powers was a very slow process. Each stage of
invention gave higher success, but these stages were very deliberate
ones.

However this be, we can be assured that the superiority of the ancestral
man lay in his mental resources, and that his victory was due to the
employment of his mind rather than of his body. As a result, the
developing influence of the conflict was exerted upon his brain, the
organ of the mind, far more than upon his physical frame, and this organ
gradually increased in size, while the body as a whole remained
practically unchanged. The conflict began with the man-ape on a level in
power and dominance with animals of its own size and inferior to those
of greater size and strength. It ended with man dominant over all the
lower animals. Such a progress, if made by any animal through variation
in physical structure, must have caused radical and extraordinary
changes in size, strength, and utility of the natural organs of offence.
If made, as in the instance in question, through development of the