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Descent of Man, extract Vol. 2, Part 2, 404-405 Lyrics by Charles Darwin

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The main conclusion arrived at in this work, namely
that man is descended from some lowly organised form,
will, I regret to think, be highly distasteful to many
persons. But there can hardly be a doubt that we are
descended from barbarians. 'The astonishment which
I felt on first seeing a party of Fuegians on a wild
and broken shore will never be forgotten by me,
for the reflection at once rushed into my mind -
such were our ancestors. These men were absolutely
naked and bedaubed with paint, their long hair was
tangled, their months frothed with excitement and
their expression was wild, startled, and distrustful.
They possessed hardly any arts, and like wild animals
lived on what they could catch; they had no govern-
ment, and were merciless to every one not of their own
small tribe. He who has seen a savage in his native
land will not feel much shame, if forced to acknowledge
that the blood of some more bumble creature flows
in his veins. For my own part I would as soon be
descended from that heroic little monkey, who braved
his dreaded enemy in order to save the life of his
keeper; or from that old baboon, who, descending from
the mountains, carried away in triumph his young
comrade from a crowd of astonished dogs - as from a
savage who delights to torture his enemies, offers up
bloody sacrifices, practises infanticide without remorse,
treats his wives like slaves, knows no decency, and is
haunted by the grossest superstitions.
Man may be excused for feeling some pride at having
risen, though not through his own exertions, to the
very summit of the organic scale; and the fact of his
having thus risen, instead of having been aboriginally
placed there, may give him hopes for a still higher
destiny in the distant future. But we are not here
concerned with hopes or fears, only with the truth as
far as our reason allows us to discover it. I have given
the evidence to the best of my ability; and we must
acknowledge, as it seems to me, that man with all his
noble qualities, with sympathy which feels for the most
debased, with benevolence which extends not only to
other men but to the humblest living creature, with his
god-like intellect which has penetrated into the move-
ments and constitution of the solar system - with all
these exulted powers - Man still bears in his bodily
frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin.
Credits
Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin

About “Descent of Man, extract Vol. 2, Part 2, 404-405” by Charles Darwin

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