Contributions to the theory of natural selection. A series of essays ... By Alfred Russel Wallace ...

306 THE ACTION OF NATURAL
had each species created in pairs, while others require
nations to have at once sprung into existence, and
that there is no stability or consistency in any doctrine
but that of one primitive stock.
The advocates of the original diversity of man, on
the other hand, have much to say for themselves.
They argue that proofs of chance in man have never
been brought forward except to the most trifling
amount, while evidence of his permanence meets us
everywhere. The Portuguese and Spaniards, settled
for two or three centuries in South America, retain
their chief physical, mental, and moral characteristics;
the Dutch boers at the Cape, and the descendants of
the early Dutch settlers in the Mtoluccas, have not lost
the features or the colour of the Germanic races; the
Jews, scattered over the world in the most diverse
climates, retain the same characteristic lineaments
everywhere; the Egyptian sculptures and paintings
show us that, for at least 4000 or 5000 years, the
strongly contrasted features of the Negro and the
Semitic races have remained altogether unchanged;
while more recent discoveries prove, that the moundbuilders of the Mississippi valley, and the dwellers
on Brazilian mountains, had, even in the very infancy of the human race, some traces of the same
peculiar and characteristic type of cranial formation
that now distinguishes them.
If we endeavour to decide impartially on the merits
of this difficult controversy, judging solely by the evidence that each party has brought forward, it certainly