XVIII THE EVOLUTION OF MENTAL CHARACTERS

1. When we originally asked how far changes in the quality of the population accounted for the facts given in the sixth chapter, it was at once obvious that the interest centred in mental changes. Now that we have gained some idea as to what is given in the germinal constitution and as to the influence of the environment in general, we are in a position to come more closely to the main problem. Three questions present themselves. We have to inquire into the facts regarding the stage of mental evolution reached at any one time. This involves making both an estimate as to the extent of the gap between the pre-human ancestor and Palaeolithic man and an examination of the differences in the mental characteristics of the chief living types of man which may be taken roughly to represent stages reached in the three chief periods. We have next to ask if we can account for these facts, and this involves an inquiry into selection, differential fertility, and such other factors as may assist to explain changes in the germinal constitution. Lastly we have to ask how far such changes as have taken place are correlated with the main features of human history.

To make an estimate of the stage of mental evolution reached by one race as compared with that reached by other races is not an easy matter. To begin with there is the difficulty of discounting the direct influence of the environment. Temperament we found to be peculiarly susceptible to environmental influence. Temperament affects the functioning of other mental characters in a very important manner. ‘Effective mental ability’, says Professor Punnett, ‘is largely a matter of temperament, and this in turn is quite possibly dependent upon the various secretions produced by the different tissues of the body. Similar nervous systems associated with different livers might conceivably result in different individuals upon whose mental ability the world would pass a very different judgment.’^[1620] Apart, however, from this 386difficulty and apart from the influence of disease, it is not probable that other factors in the environment have any marked direct effect upon either disposition or intellect.

There is a far more serious difficulty to which allusion has already been made. It arises from the fact that mental faculties as exhibited in daily life are overlaid by tradition and shaped by habit. There is no difficulty in getting down to any physical character. It is always possible to separate the limb from the tool which it uses. It is frequently very difficult to effect the corresponding separation between the faculty and the tool in the case of mental characters. Human mental characteristics, as manifested in daily life, represent the combination of acquirements with a certain basis. By the basis is meant that which develops as the result of environmental stimuli acting upon the predispositions. The basis of all mental faculties is, therefore, that which strictly speaking is comparable with physical characters. Mental characters as manifested in daily life represent this basis combined with tradition. This applies not only to the intellectual but also to the instinctive faculties. The manifestation of instinct is dependent upon the channels into which it has been led by tradition and upon the outlets which tradition provides for it.

In attempting to estimate the stage of evolution of mental characters reached at any one time, we must, as far as we can, allow for all that obscures their manifestation. There are several different ways in which this may be attempted and it will be found possible to reach a fairly definite conclusion with regard to the degree of development of mental characters as exhibited by two races as different as the white and black. But the inquiry into the differences between the more nearly related varieties, such as the different branches of the white race, present far more difficult problems, and by these methods we shall not be able to approach them with much hope of success. Further, these difficulties will be more strongly felt when we go on to inquire into the causes of the changes which have led to the evolution of the different types. Therefore, though in this chapter we shall reach certain conclusions as to the nature, causes, and results of mental changes in the earlier periods, we shall find that, owing to the difficulties mentioned, we are unable to reach any conclusion as to the later periods until we have inquired into the importance of tradition. It will thus be necessary to 387cut short this inquiry and turn to consider tradition in the following two chapters. Only when this subsidiary inquiry has been made shall we be able to complete our estimate as to the part played by changes in the germinal constitution so far as they affect mental characters.

2. The indications as regards mental development obtainable from a study of fossil remains are, of course, very vague. Such as they are, however, considerable interest attaches to them. In the later part of the first period, in the Upper Palaeolithic, that is to say, we meet with types of men whose cranial capacity and the formation of whose brain, so far as it can be judged from skulls, do not indicate any difference in mental capacity as compared with modern man. It must be emphasized that this is a very rough method of comparing intellectual capacity. Something, however, may be deduced from such observations, and it is probable that, though there may have been noteworthy differences between Cro-Magnon and modern European intellectual capacity, as we judge differences to-day, nevertheless looking at human evolution as a whole, we cannot escape the conclusion that by the end of the first period, before man had learnt to support himself otherwise than by hunting and fishing, by far the greater part of the journey from the condition of our pre-human ancestor to that of European man had been accomplished. This is a very important deduction, because, inasmuch as the greater part of the progress in skill had still to come, it means that progress in intellectual capacity and progress in skill did not go hand in hand.

What we should like to be able to do, but cannot at present do, is to follow the evolution of the cranial capacity and the shape of the brain of the ancestors of Upper Palaeolithic man. But all we have in the Middle Palaeolithic are representatives of the peculiar Neanderthal type, which apparently died out. Judging from the cranial capacity, the intellectual development of Neanderthal man must have been considerable and probably not inferior to that of the Australians. If Eoanthropus is to be assigned to the Lower Palaeolithic, it is the only skull of that period that we have. Judging not so much from the cranial capacity as from the formation of the brain, the intellectual capacity of Eoanthropus was clearly much less than that of Neanderthal man and of any other type of man now living. 388Pithecanthropus was certainly anterior to the Palaeolithic. He may, it is true, have used and even fashioned implements of a very primitive type. It is noteworthy that, so far as can be judged, in cranial capacity he stands about half-way between modern man and the hypothetical ancestor, and if we are going to make any deductions at all regarding so difficult a point, it is reasonable to assume that in general his intellectual capacity was about half-way between that of modern man and the pre-human ancestor.

On the basis of this evidence the broad outlines of the picture are as follows. At the very least the intellectual development of Early Palaeolithic man had reached a point half-way between that of the pre-human ancestor and that of modern European races. Almost certainly it had gone farther, perhaps considerably further. As regards man in the Middle Palaeolithic, we have details only regarding an aberrant type whose intellectual capacity, though considerable, probably did not reach that of the contemporary ancestors of the Upper Palaeolithic types of whom as yet we know nothing. The cranial capacity and other features of the Upper Palaeolithic types show no essential differences from modern man. though it has to be remembered that, as cranial capacity is but a rough guide, differences in mental capacity may have existed.

3. In order to gain a more exact idea of the stage of mental evolution reached in the first and second periods, we are obliged to turn to the evidence supplied by primitive races, just as we turned to them to fill in the gaps in our knowledge of the social habits of Palaeolithic man.

There are at least three methods whereby an attempt may be made to arrive at some idea of the intellectual development of primitive races as compared with modern European man. There is to begin with a very large number of observations and impressions recorded by men who in many cases have lived a long time among primitive races and have had unusual opportunities for judging them. Then attempts have been made to measure the intelligence of these races by the use of the Binet-Simon methods, and we may notice the results of some of these attempts. Lastly, in certain parts of the world for some generations white and coloured races have been living side by side under almost identical conditions and now compete together almost on an 389equality, and we may note the current opinion in those regions with regard to their respective intellectual capacities.

All the evidence regarding the Australians agrees in attributing to them a relatively high level of intellect. ‘Most observers’, says Thomas, ‘agree that up to the age of puberty, possibly longer, they have an extraordinary facility in the acquisition of knowledge.’^[1621] Speaking of the aborigines of Victoria, Smyth records that ‘black children brought up in the schools learn very quickly, and in perception, memory, and power to discriminate, they are, to say the least, equal to European children. A missionary, the Rev. F. A. Hagenauer, a gentleman of great ability, who has control of the aboriginal station at Lake Wellington, reports that the examination made by the Government School Inspectors shows that the aboriginal pupils taught by him are quite equal to the Whites. In his last report he states that the whole of the fifth class in his school has passed the standard examination (that appointed for children in State schools) and that they had received certificates.’^[1622] Spiller has collected a large number of such opinions,^[1623] and Semon says that ‘on examining the accounts of missionaries who have had occasion to instruct children of Australian natives, it will be found that nearly all of them come to the conclusion that at the onset of instruction hardly any difference between faculties of black and white children in grasping the elements is to be remarked. There is such a capability of memory and sharpness of the senses that in reading, writing, drawing, topography, and geography they at first even excel the whites.’^[1624] Nearly all observers agree that there comes a point when the faculties of aboriginal children cease to develop. Thus Smyth says that ‘With keen senses, quick perceptions, and a precocity that is surprising, he stops just short of the point where an advance would lead to a complete change in the characters of his mind’,^[1625] and Mathew who remarks that ‘in schools it has been observed that aboriginal children learn quite as easily and rapidly as children of European parents’, goes on to say that ‘while among Europeans the range of mental development seems almost unbounded, with the blacks its limit is soon attained’.^[1626]

390Among the Andaman Islanders there is, according to Man, up to the age of 12 or 14 ‘as much intelligence as [among] ordinary middle class children of civilized races’; he goes on to quote another observer who found these people ‘not deficient in brain power; it rather lies dormant and unused in their savage state’, and gives the example ‘of an aboriginal patient of 12 years of age, who had been entered in the Ross Orphanage School, and who, in his tender years, could yet read English and Ordu fluently, as well as speak and write in both these languages, retaining also a knowledge of his native tongue. He had besides a fair knowledge of arithmetic. I may add that this is not an exceptional case, for I would instance others, and one lad in particular who was his superior.’^[1627] These opinions could be paralleled many times over. The Jesuit missionary Baegert, for example, had a high opinion of the intellectual abilities of the Californian Indians. ‘Like other people, they are possessed of reason and understanding, and their stupidity is not inborn with them, but the result of habit; and I am of opinion that, if their sons were sent to European seminaries and colleges, and their girls to convents where young females are instructed, they would prove equal in all respects to Europeans in the acquirement of morals and of useful sciences and arts.’^[1628]

The opinions of observers of races which fall within the second group are all very similar. Some typical opinions may be given. Speaking of Bantu races south of the Zambezi Theal says that ‘in Mission Schools children of early age are found to keep pace with those of white parents. In some respects, indeed, they are the higher of the two ... but while the European youth is still developing his powers the Bantu youth in many instances is found unable to make further progress. His intellect has become sluggish and frequently he exhibits a decided repugnance, if not an incapacity, to learn anything more. The growth of his mind, which at first promised so much, has ceased just at that stage where the mind of the European begins to display the greatest vigour.’^[1629] Later he says that ‘the strong desire of the greater number is to live as closely like their ancestors as the altered circumstances of their country will permit, to make use of a few of the white man’s simplest conveniences and of his 391protection against their enemies, but to avoid his habits and to shut out his ideas. Compared with Europeans their adults are frequently children in imagination and in simplicity of belief, though not infrequently one may have the mental faculties of a full-grown man.’^[1630] Of the Bangala of the Upper Congo Weeks says that ‘up to the age of 14 and 15, the boys and girls, especially the boys, are very receptive and easily taught; but after that age comparatively few make real advance in learning’.^[1631] This is attributed partly to the fact that at this age other matters occupy their attention—working on their own account, looking round for a wife, and so on, but more especially to the fact that by this age they have learnt all that their fathers have to teach them and thenceforth settle down into a routine. Of the men of the races of Central Africa Johnston speaks as follows: ‘his mental powers are not much developed by native training, but I am certain that he has in him possibilities in the present generation as great of those of the average Indian; and there is really no saying what he may come to after several generations of education. I think it is truly remarkable the way in which a little savage boy can be put to school and taught to read in a few months and subsequently become a skilful printer or telegraph clerk or even book keeper. The little boys are much sharper and shrewder than the grown-up male. When the youth arrives at puberty there is undoubtedly a tendency towards an arrested development of the mind.’^[1632] This latter tendency is attributed to the attention paid to sexual matters. This arrest of development is a feature in all descriptions of the mental characters of these races. Junod is inclined, however, to think that these descriptions are on the whole exaggerated.^[1633] In order to enable us to form such judgement on this point a few further quotations may be given. Ellis, describing the Ewe-speaking peoples of Togoland, mentions the precocity of the children when compared with Europeans, and says that, ‘at puberty the physical nature masters the intellect and frequently completely deadens it’.^[1634] The Bambala children ‘are very precocious, and up to the age of puberty are often astonishingly intelligent; after puberty, however, they become exceedingly apathetic; sexual excess and continual intoxication with palm wine contribute largely to this result’.^[1635] Speaking 392of the natives of Portuguese East Africa, Maugham refers to the great brightness and promise early displayed; as regards the later stages says that he has ‘over and over again been the witness of the sudden and astounding change which takes place among the young male house servants as youth approaches manhood. Brightness and initiative disappear; they go about their duties in a most casual manner; they are unable to remember the clearest and simplest instructions, and are constantly away without permission.’^[1636] Referring to this subject so far as the natives of the Congo are concerned, Weeks states that ‘for generations boys on arriving at the age of 14 or 15 had learnt all their father had to teach respecting fishing, hunting, woodcraft, building, paddling, &c.... Thus their intelligence had attained for generations the fullest development by the above age; now we have to help them over that crucial stage; in some cases it is very difficult; but in other cases we can do so; and in such there is no limit to the intellectual progress they can make. In many cases they have mastered a good working knowledge of French, Portuguese or English, both spoken and written, and as larger opportunities are given, a larger number of youths will make such mental progress as will encourage their friends and teachers.’^[1637] Bryant, who has had a wide experience of South African natives, sums up his impressions by confirming the common opinion that the native boy is, at an early age, if anything, superior to the European boy of the same age, and that at puberty his mental development is arrested. He thinks that Boer boys living in the backwoods and receiving practically no training are, if anything, inferior to the African boys. He adds—what is of particular interest—the fact that the African boys, whose education begins early, do not show the same arrest of development as those whose education begins later. Nevertheless the African boy educated from an early age is surpassed by the European boy later on. We find also, he says, that ‘in practically every case where a South African native has had the opportunity of receiving an education in one of the universities of Europe or America, that that native has invariably been able to hold his own against all white rivals and to pass as successfully as they the same examinations in Law, Medicine, or Arts.’ 393Such men, however, he adds, may have been selected as particularly fitted to profit by further education.^[1638] Summing up his opinion upon this subject, Olivier says that it is not possible to ‘justify a generalization that there is any particular human function for which coloured persons are by their African blood disqualified. In various categories of human activity we may maintain that, as a rule, black and coloured folk are not up to the normal standard of the white, and are difficult and disheartening to deal with. But in other categories they are more liberally endowed than the average white man, not only with sympathetic and valuable human qualities, but with talent and executive ability for their expression.’^[1639]

The evidence has been taken from the accounts of African races; very similar evidence could be presented for all races in the second group. No purpose would be served by so doing, however, because such evidence amounts merely to a repetition of opinion similar to those given above. Before attempting to analyse this evidence, we may glance at the evidence obtained on other lines.

4. Many investigations have been recently carried out to test the relative intelligence of children of modern Europeans and of primitive races. The method used is known as the Binet-Simon method and consists essentially in subjecting children to a large number of carefully prepared tests upon the total result of which an estimate is made of the intelligence of each child. Some of the most instructive of these observations have been made in America, where white and coloured children receive a very similar education; the result of an investigation carried out by Miss Strong in that country may be described. She tested 225 white children belonging to two schools and 125 coloured children belonging to one school. There is a standard degree of intelligence for each year of age, and thus every child can be graded according as to whether it reaches the standard degree of intelligence, or is above or below it. The results of this particular investigation are summed up in the following table:^[1640]

Coloured Children. White Children.

More than one year backward 29·4 10·2

Satisfactory 69·8 84·4

More than one year advanced 0·8 5·3

394That the inferiority of the coloured children is exhibited at all ages is shown by the following table:^[1641]

Below Age. At Age. Above Age.

White. Coloured. White. Coloured. White. Coloured.

6 years 19·4 40·0 30·6 33·3 50·0 26·7

7 „ 13·9 39·4 61·1 58·8 25·0 11·8

8 „ 18·5 23·0 55·5 38·5 26·0 38·5

9 „ 32·2 71·4 41·9 21·4 25·9 7·2

10 „ 55·1 75·0 27·6 12·5 17·3 12·5

11 „ 34·6 43·7 42·2 50·0 23·1 6·3

12 „ 67·5 77·0 32·5 23·0

34·5 51·4 41·2 33·9 24·3 14·7

With regard to these results Miss Strong writes as follows: ‘This seems to lead to the conclusion that the coloured children are mentally younger than the white. There is a difference of nearly 15 per cent. in the satisfactory group, nearly three times as many are more than a year backward, and less than 1 per cent. are more than a year advanced. A course of study in the coloured school is practically the same as that in the white schools. To what extent the difference is due to racial inferiority, to what extent differences in the home environment, cannot be said. It is certainly not due to difference in school training.’^[1642]

There are certain criticisms of weight to be made regarding the importance to be attached to estimates of intelligence due to this method. These need not detain us beyond noting that, although in general, inasmuch as the children use the same language, the mental equipment is similar, nevertheless there may be considerable differences in acquired habit as between white and coloured children which affect their responses to the test. There is a further criticism of some importance to be made regarding this particular investigation. It was entirely carried out by white examiners, and it may very well be that the coloured children did not respond as readily and acquit themselves as favourably as if they had been examined by members of their own race. There is reason to suspect therefore that the coloured children may not show up in as favourable a light as the white children quite apart from any colour bias that may possibly affect the results in the same way. In any case it seems certain that the results are not unduly favourable to the coloured children.

395The results of several similar inquiries have been summarized by Popenoe and Johnson. ‘The most careful study yet made’, they write, ‘of the relative intelligence of negroes and whites,’ is that of G. O. Ferguson, junior, on 486 white and 421 coloured pupils in the schools of Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Newport News, Va. Tests were employed which required the use of the higher ‘functions’ and as far as possible (mainly on the basis of skin colour) the amount of white blood in the coloured pupils was determined. Four classes were made: full-blood negro, ¾ negro, ½ negro (mulatto), and ¼ negro (quadroon). It was found that ‘the pure negroes scored 69·2 per cent. as high as the whites; that the ¾ negroes scored 73 per cent. as high as the whites; that the mulattoes scored 81·2 per cent. as high as the whites; and that the quadroons obtained 91·8 per cent. of the white score.’ This confirms the belief of many observers that the ability of a coloured man is proportionate to the amount of white blood he has.^[1643]

Summing up a review of this subject Huntingdon writes as follows: ‘So far as I am aware, every exact test which has been made on a large scale indicates mental superiority on the part of the white race, even when the two races have equal opportunities. For example, in Washington the coloured children remain in school quite as long as the white; they do not accomplish so much in the way of study and do not reach so high a grade. In the cities of the south, Mayo and Leram find that where the races are given essentially the same instruction, the proportion of whites who are promoted is greater than than of negroes. Moreover, the differences seem to increase with years, which suggests that the average coloured child not only stands below the average white child in mental development at all ages, but ceases to develop at an earlier age. In the High Schools of New York, superiority of the white race is shown by Mayo’s examination of the average marks. By the time the children reach the High School, the processes of promotion have weeded out a much larger proportion of coloured children than of white. Hence, the negroes form a specially selected group whose superiority to the average of their race is more marked than the superiority of the white High School children when compared with the rest of the race. Nevertheless, the average marks of the white children 396are distinctly higher than those of the coloured.’^[1644] Here again, as in the case of Miss Strong’s investigation, it is not improbable that the conditions are to some extent weighted against the coloured race.

5. A third method of arriving at some indication of the relative degree of mental capacity is to notice what has happened where for some generations the two races have lived under more or less similar conditions. ‘One of the best places for comparing the two races is in the Bahama Islands’, writes Huntington. For reasons which I shall present later, the process of making ‘poor whites’ has probably gone farther in the Bahamas than in almost any other Anglo-Saxon community. Part of the white population are like their race in other regions, but a large portion have unmistakably degenerated. Witness their intense and bigoted speech, their sunken cheeks and eyes, their sallow complexion, and their inert way of working. In spite of racial prejudice, there is no real colour line in the Bahamas. Persons with more or less negro blood are worthy occupants of the highest positions, and are universally accepted in the most exclusive social circles. The British Government gives the negro every possible opportunity. The state of affairs may be judged from the remarks of a ‘poor white’ sailor, who said to me: ‘You want to know why I like the Southern States better than the North. It is because they hate a nigger and I hates him too. What kind of a place is this where they do everything for the nigger and nothing for the white man? It is bad enough to have to go to jail, but it’s pretty hard for a white man to be taken there by a nigger constable.’ In one Bahaman village I saw negro girls teaching white children in the public school. In that same village a number of the leading white men cannot read or write.

‘When they were children, their parents would not send them to school with negroes. The despised negroes learnt to read and write but have now largely forgotten these accomplishments. The proud whites grow up in abject ignorance. To-day the same thing is going on. I visited two villages where the white children are staying away from school because they will not go to negro teachers. The homes of such whites are scarcely better than those of their coloured neighbours, and their fathers are called 397“Jim” and “Jack” by the black men with whom they work. Racial prejudice apparently works more harm to the whites than to the blacks. So far as occupations go there is no difference, for all alike till the soil, sail boats, and gather sponges.

‘When the lumber industry was introduced into the islands, whites and blacks were equally ignorant of the various kinds of work involved in cutting trees and converting them into lumber. The managers did not care who did the work so long as it was done. They wanted three things: strength, docility or faithfulness, and brains. They soon found that in the first two the negroes were superior. Time and again persons in authority, chiefly American but also some of the more capable native whites, told me that if they wanted a crew of men to load a boat or some such thing, they would prefer negroes every time. The poor white shirks more than the coloured man. He is not so strong, he is proud and touchy. Other things being equal, the negro receives the preference, but other things are not equal. The very man who praised the negroes generally added: “But you can’t use a negro for everything. They can’t seem to learn some things, and they don’t know how to boss a job.” The pay roll reflects this. Even though the negroes receive the preference the 400 who are employed earn on an average only about 60 per cent. as much as the 57 white men. If we take only the 57 most competent negroes their average daily wages are still only 88 per cent. as great as those of the native whites. The difference is purely a matter of brains. Although the white man may be ignorant and inefficient, with no more training than the negro, and although his father and grandfather were scarcely better, he possesses an inheritance of mental quickness and initiative which comes into evidence at the first opportunity.’^[1645]

6. What conclusions are we to draw from this varied evidence? Let us first ask how we should view the differences between the negro and the modern European. There seems to be no marked difference in innate intellectual power; the differences are rather differences in disposition and temperament. The white man has initiative, inventiveness, versatility, and power of leadership; the black man has humility, patience, loyalty, and self-sacrifice. It is remarkable with what unanimity observers of the negro race in its own country speak of the high degree of intellectual 398development. Certain points are noteworthy. The apparent arrest of development is associated with an absorption at a certain age in practical matters, in tribal habits and customs, in sex and in settling down to a normal married existence as much on the lines of their ancestors as is possible under the altered conditions. Several passages quoted above strongly suggest that what we are here witnessing is a turning away from the training felt to be strange and foreign, owing to the strength of the native tradition which claims all the affection and interest of the young man. In other words this arrest may not be so much an inevitable result of the kind of mental faculties which are inherited as a result of the coming into play of a peculiar tradition. This conclusion is supported by the fact that, when in Africa education begins earlier, when, that is to say, there is more of a break with native tradition, the arrest is less well marked. Further, in America, it is still less marked though it can be detected. The conclusion would thus seem to be that, though there may be some tendency for intellectual development to stop at a rather lower stage than among European races, it is nothing like so well marked as the observations of residents in South Africa would seem at first sight to show.

The evidence quoted has chiefly been drawn from observations upon the negro races. It must suffice here to say that what is known regarding the intellectual development of other races included in the first and second groups leads to the conclusion that, although there are signs of differences as between these races, yet these differences are not remarkable, and further that the degree to which so apparently low a race as the Australians differs from Europeans is not in any case much greater than the degree in which negroes differ from Europeans.

It remains to ask how far this evidence supplements that derived from a study of fossil remains. Judging from the fact that the general level of the development of the mental faculties of any primitive race is not separated markedly farther from that of modern European man than are the negro races in this respect from modern European man, it seems that we must allow to Upper Palaeolithic man on the average a degree of mental development at least equivalent to that of the negro. It is further only reasonable to suppose that the ancestors of Upper Palaeolithic man in the Middle Palaeolithic were little inferior in mental 399capacity, inasmuch as to Neanderthal man, to whom they were superior and whom they apparently exterminated, we must attribute a degree of intelligence little, if at all, inferior to that of the Australians. Of Lower Palaeolithic man we know much less. We do not know, for example, whether he buried his dead. But if we consider the variety of instruments fashioned and used by him, it is not unreasonable to attribute to him, in view of the nature of the general conclusions to which we are being led, a degree of intelligence again but little inferior to that of Middle Palaeolithic man.

Our conclusions can only be tentative; nevertheless such indications as we have all point the same way. It would seem that the major part of the progress in the evolution of the intellectual faculties had been accomplished far back in Palaeolithic times. Those living races which, with all due reservations and qualifications, may be held to represent in mental and bodily characters Palaeolithic races, differ from modern European man rather in disposition than in intellect. And it is important to note that it is in the growth of the intellect rather than in the growth of the other mental faculties that modern man is distinguished from his pre-human ancestor.

7. We may again follow the same procedure as in the last chapter. We may recall the general conditions to which man was subject in the intermediate and early periods and ask how the evolution of mental characters was influenced by them. We may further ask to what degree and in what direction the conditions of life among primitive races influence the selection of mental characters since in general we may assume the same influences to have been at work among prehistoric races. With regard to the intermediate period we have to remember that it was far longer than, perhaps many times as long as, the period which has elapsed since the rise of Palaeolithic industry. Within this period man descended to the ground, spread, if not into every continent, at least far over the surface of the world and came to dominate all other living organisms as no species had ever done before. Clearly he was enabled to achieve this result by his intellectual powers and by them alone. He did not develop any other means of attack or means of defence: he conquered by his intellect.

In a general way it is possible to understand how this came 400about. To begin with, the pre-human ancestor was favourably situated for such a development because he was a generalized and not a specialized type. Once specialization of form has set in, as it has among the anthropoid apes, there are two bars to such a development as occurred in man. The specialization of bodily form in order to cope with a peculiar environment renders the body less adaptable to any changes in the environment which may take place. Further, unless the body is of the nature of an instrument capable of being readily employed to perform various functions, the intellect is unable to manifest itself. We have only to think of the specialized fore and hind limbs of most mammalian types to see how poor an instrument the body would in those cases make in the service of the intellect.

Under these favourable circumstances, evolution took this momentous turn. We can understand how, since the pre-human ancestor depended for his survival almost solely upon his intellect, there would be a high premium upon intellectual development. It is reasonable to suppose that he lived in groups of polygamous families and that differential fertility thus intensified selection. There is, of course, never at any time only a single factor governing selection, and though undoubtedly intellect was the chief factor in selection, climatic and other factors were, as we have noticed, also in operation, bringing about those changes in bodily form that we have observed.

The instincts of the pre-human ancestor were doubtless, in common with those of other mammals, of a generalized type compared with what we find among some lower groups of animals. The tendency has been for them to become even more generalized, though not on the whole any less powerful. It seems likely, for instance, that the instinct of flight was definitely associated with the snakes among other objects from the attacks of which presumably the ancestor was at one time in danger. We assume this because we occasionally meet with cases in which this specialization of the instinct of flight still obtains. The instinct of flight has now become wholly generalized, being aroused by general conditions and not by specialized occurrences. If it is correct to think of the ancestor as living in groups of families, for the leadership of which there must have been continual struggles, we may conclude that the instincts of pugnacity and of self-assertion were favoured, and we may make other similar 401deductions in estimating the value of which, however, it must be remembered that we are very largely in the region of hypothesis and speculation. The one thing to which we may with certainty hold fast is the premium upon intellect.

8. At length the intermediate period gave place to the period marked by the origin of society of the primitive type, defined by the fact that men are bound together by rigid custom. Obedience to custom involves a considerable measure of control of the impulses. Before society of this kind could have arisen, mental evolution must have reached a still higher level.

Let us consider what is implied. To begin with, the dependence of man upon his intellect for his position in the world accounts, as we have seen, for the evolution of his mental faculties up to a relatively high level in the intermediate period. When this level had been reached, the next step was rendered possible. What was now required was that man should be able to enjoy the advantages of social co-operation. To this end law was necessary. McDougall quotes Bagehot as saying that ‘law, rigid, definite, concise law, was a primary want of early mankind; that which they needed above everything else, that which was requisite before they could gain anything else’, and that: ‘in early times the quantity of government is much more important than its quality. What is wanted is a comprehensive rule binding men together, making them do the same things, telling them what to expect of each other, fashioning them alike, and keeping them so. What this rule is, does not matter so much. A good rule is better than a bad one, but a bad one is better than none.’^[1646] That man should acquiesce in the restrictions imposed by society involves prudence, which inhibits those impulses which would lead to a contravention of custom. Now; fear is a simple emotion, but prudence implies something more. It involves ‘a capacity for deliberation and the weighing of motives in the light of self-consciousness.’^[1647] In order that society might become established, there was thus required a further evolution of the intellect, and, since the advantages to be gained by the establishment of society were so great, there must have been a heavy premium upon evolution in this direction.

The beginning of the first period in history thus marks the successful completion of a step in mental evolution raising man 402above the stage reached in the intermediate period. It is important to observe that all primitive races known to us are representatives of man after he had completed this step. So far, therefore, as their mental faculties throw light upon the mental evolution of man, it is the level of evolution reached after and not before the evolution of social organization that is illustrated.

We may now glance at the conditions characteristic of primitive races and ask how they bear upon the selection of mental characters. Primitive society we found to be characterized by hard and fast rules which must be implicitly obeyed if social organization is to be maintained. Obedience to these conventions is of the utmost importance; we may remember incidentally that, unless the conventions are observed, an approximation to the optimum population will not be made. There is in consequence a tendency towards the elimination of those exhibiting characteristics incompatible with due subservience to the prevailing tradition. Such characteristics are any marked developments of intellect or of disposition away from the average. The man who will not conform is not tolerated. However advantageous to the individual certain developments might be, such developments are not favoured because the importance of maintaining intact the group to which he belongs is of greater moment. Thus, as in the case of physical characters, the general tendency is on the whole against further evolution and towards the preservation of those types which have reached the position characteristic of any primitive race. And it is to be noted that, whereas bodily form is on the whole adapted to the physical environment, mental characters are adapted on the whole to the traditional environment. Men come to be selected in accordance with the needs of social organization, and as tradition grows in amount also in accordance with their capability of absorbing tradition.

It is difficult to point to any factors which markedly favour further evolution of mental characters. On reading the admirable accounts of the daily life and customs of the Australians as given by Messrs. Spencer and Gillen, or of a much more advanced people—the tribes of Borneo, as described by Messrs. Hose and McDougall—we observe, it is true, the respect paid to men of experience and of rather more than average intelligence. We can understand how men not up to the average level of intelligence would not in all respects fare as well as others, but we do not 403find that there are factors distinctly favouring unusual intelligence. Some progress there probably was. On the whole those men who attained the leadership were probably rather more intelligent than the average, though among the qualities which assisted such men to gain the leadership many other mental qualities played a more prominent part than intellect; thus, by practising polygamy, or practising it to a greater extent than the rest, they left more than the average number of descendants—and, while perhaps raising the intellectual level of the race, more certainly altering the average mental endowment in respect of these other qualities.

Such an examination also shows that a somewhat different disposition is favoured in different cases. Thus a warlike type is favoured among the American Indians, for, though possibly the most warlike may be killed off the most quickly, this is more than counterbalanced by the ease which with such men get numerous wives. But such differences in no way conflict with the fact that the tendency is towards the preservation of a mean, which though it may vary somewhat, is in general outline the same among all these races.

There still remains to be noticed the result of conflict between groups, other than normal warfare, which at times led to the substitution, whole or partial, of a less intelligent by a more intelligent race, or at least of a less skilled by a more skilled race; for by this time the outward manifestation of intellect was to a considerable extent overlaid by tradition. But such substitution, though it changes the average germinal constitution of the species as a whole, scarcely accounts in any noteworthy degree for the evolution of a higher level of intellectual capacity. The conditions which did favour further evolution within these two periods are the same as those which, when present to a more marked degree and acting over a longer period of time, finally gave rise to the races of the third period, and to these conditions we may now turn.

9. There are certain regions of the world’s surface which contain within them areas abutting one upon the other and differing sharply one from the other. Such a region is found in that part of Western Asia which embraces Asia Minor, Armenia, Syria, Arabia, Mesopotamia, and Western Iran. In such areas races live in close contact with other races of very different 404habits, customs, and modes of life; hunting and fishing races, pastoral races, agricultural races, races predominately sea-faring, all come into contact and conflict. Under conditions of these kinds there is more tendency for advantage to accrue to intellect not only as between members of different races but as between members of the same race than in conflicts between races of similar culture. Where these conditions have ruled, therefore, there has been a tendency, though perhaps not a very marked tendency, for a premium to have been set upon intellect. It so happens, however, that this region of Western Asia is endowed above all other regions with plants and animals that can be domesticated and with other features offering rewards to skill. In this region there was thus an additional premium upon intellect, and it was apparently in this region that the races who initiated the third period made their appearance. To the favouring of intellect under these conditions we may thus attribute what superiority of intellect the races of this group exhibit over the races of other groups. But it is rather in disposition and temperament that the predominant races of this group differ from those of the preceding groups. In them we meet with a power of leadership, a resourcefulness, a versatility, that marks them off from the primitive races, and it is precisely these qualities which would be chiefly favoured in conflict and competition of the kind described. The outward manifestation of these qualities may indeed be largely a matter of tradition, but that they are also in part innate in the modern European we have seen to be the case, and the explanation of this further evolution is clearly to be found in the conditions to which they have long been subject.

Turning to the conditions within the races of the third period and neglecting the Asiatic races, those races which in fact have been left in a backwater out of the main stream of progress, we find ourselves faced with the difficulty that tradition has so far come to overlay the innate qualities of intellect and disposition, that we are only with great difficulty at present able to estimate the result of any factors which we may see at work favouring or otherwise particular types. We may note, however, that success both between and within races has fallen rather to character than to skill. There is, in other words, little reason for thinking that intellect, so far as it is measured by skill, has been markedly favoured. On the other hand, character as 405outwardly manifested has been clearly favoured. But how far we should see in this process a favouring of certain innate types of disposition and of temperament must be left for consideration until later. These reservations regarding the passing at present of any judgement apply with the greatest force to the results of the differential fertility between the social classes in many countries at the present day. But we may say that, as in the case of physical characters, there has now ceased to be any strong tendency towards the preservation of a mean type. Conditions allow of the existence of variations away from the mean—but, as regards intellect, unfavourable equally with favourable variations.

10. We have seen that the evidence derived both from a study of fossil remains and from a study of primitive races leads to the conclusion that the evolution of human intellectual capacity early reached a relatively advanced stage. An inquiry into the forces which we must assume to have been at work shows that intellectual capacity was more favoured in the intermediate stage than after primitive society had come into being. It was favoured at first as the character which enabled man to obtain his dominating position in the world and afterwards again as the necessary trait which enabled him to enjoy the benefits of co-operation. When dwelling on the fact that the advance since the setting up of primitive society has been relatively small, it must not be forgotten that the latter period has been far shorter than the former. The period of time which has elapsed since the ancestors of man set out, so to speak, to conquer the world, must at a minimum estimate be five to ten times as long as the period since the establishment of primitive society to the present day.

The general conclusion to which we are led is that of the whole degree of mental evolution which has taken place by far the greater part was achieved at a time when only a beginning had been made with progress in skill. To the question whether the historical process outlined in the fifth chapter is comparable with progress among wild species—is based, in other words, upon changes in the germinal constitution—these conclusions suggest the answer that the happenings in the intermediate period are very largely in any case to be accounted for in this manner. There can be little doubt that the increasing domination of man was largely proportional to the growth of his innate intellectual 406capacity. But to the question as to how far the happenings within the period since the origin of primitive society are connected with the further evolution of innate capacity we can at present return no answer. We may note the striking fact that within this period progress in skill has been immense and has latterly gone on at a greatly increased speed, whereas changes in the germinal constitution have been relatively small. This clearly suggests that there has been but little connexion between the course of history as usually understood and changes in the germinal constitution. But before we can pass any judgement, we must gain some idea as to the manner in which tradition contributes to the shaping of history. Only then shall we be in a position to estimate the part played by such changes in innate characters as have occurred, and to this task we may now turn.

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