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

SELECTION ON MIAN. 317
moment that the form of his body became stationary,
his mind would become subject to those very influences from which his body had escaped; every slight
variation in his mental and moral nature which should
enable him better to guard against adverse circumstances, and combine for mutual comfort and protection,
would be preserved and accumulated; the better and
higher specimens of our race would therefore increase
and spread, the lower and more brutal would give way
and successively die out, and that rapid advancement
of mental organization would occur, which has raised
the very lowest races of man so far above the brutes
(although differing so little from some of them in
physical structure), and, in conjunction with scarcely
perceptible modifications of form, has developed the
wonderful intellect of the European races.
Influence of externzal Ntature in the development of tmhe
iohman Minzd.
But from the time when this mental and moral
advance commenced, and man's physical character
became fixed and almost immutable, a new series of
causes would come into action, and take part in his
mental growth. The diverse aspects of nature would
now make themselves felt, and profoundly influence the
character of the primitive man.
When the power that had hitherto modified the body
had its action transferred to the mind, then races would
advance and become improved, merely by the harsh discipline of a sterile soil and inclement seasons. Under