other cause, less obvious, is one which must not be over- looked. As was shown in the Prindplea of Psychology, Ch. L, it is the nervous system rather than the muscular system, which measures the force evolved. Throughout the animal kingdom the development of the nervous system, which is the initiator of all motion, varies partly as the quantity of motion generated and partly as the complexity of that motion. On remembering the failure of muscular power which comes along with flagging emotions or desires lapsing into indifference, and, contrariwise, the immense power given by intense passion, which, as in the insane, greatly exceeds that put out by a man under ordinary excitement, we shall see how immediate is the dependence of strength upon feeling. And, seeing this, we shall under- stand why, other things equal, the savage with a smaller brain, generating less feeling, is not so strong.
§ 28. Among the physiological traits which distinguish man in his primitive state from man in his advanced state, we may with certainty set down relative hardiness. Con* 54 THX DATA OF SOCIOLOGY.
irast thq trial of conBtitation wliich child-bearing brings on the civilized woman^ with the smsdl constitutional disturb- ance it causes to the sayage woman. Ask what would happen to both mother and child^ under the conditions of sarage life^ had they no greater toughness of physique than is possessed by the civilized mother and child. Both the existence of this trait and its necessity will then be obvious. Inevitably^ survival of the fittest must ever have tended to produce and maintain a constitution capable of enduring the n:useries^ hardships^ injuries^ necessarily accompanying a life at the mercy of surrounding actions; since there must ever have been a destruction of constitutions not en- during enough. The Fuegian who quietly lets the falling sleet melt on his naked body^ must be the product of a dis- cipline which has killed off all who were not extremely tena- cious of life. When we read that the Yakuts, who from their ability to bear cold are called " iron men/' sometimes sleep in that rigorous region ^^ completely exposed to the heavens, with scarcely any clothing on, and their bodies covered with a thick coat of rime/' we cannot but infer , that their adaptation to the severities of their climate has resulted from the continual destruction of all but the most resisting. Similarly with respect to another detri- mental influence. Mr. Hodgson remarks that a " capacity to breathe malaria as though it were common air charac- terizes nearly all the Tamulian aborigines of India''; and we need but recall the ability of Negro-races to live in pestilential regions, to see that elsewhere there has been similarly produced a constitutional power to withstand dele- terious vapours. So, too, is it with the bearing of bodily injuries. The recuperative powers of the Australians, and others of the lowest races, are notorious. Wounds which would be quickly fatal to Europeans they readily recover from.
Whether this gain entails loss in other directions, we have no direct evidence. It is known that the hardier THI PBDOnyi XAH — ^PHYSICAL. 55 breeds of domestic aniTnalB are smaller than ihe less liardy breeds; and it may be that a coiistitation adapted to ex- treme pertarbations gains its adaptation at the expense, per- baps of size^ perhaps of energy. It seems, indeed, highly probable that this physiological advantage is purchased by some physiological disadvantage — a disadvantage escaped by the higher races whose arts of life enable them to evade these deranging actions. And if so, this fitness for pri- mitive conditions entails some further impediment to the establishment of higher conditions.
§ 29. A closely-related physiological trait must be added. Along with this greater ability to bear injurious actions, there is a comparative indifference to the disagreeable or painful sensations those actions cause; or rather, the sensa- tions they cause are not so acute. There are many testi- monies to this fact, of which a few will suflBice. According to Lichtenstein, the Bushmen do not '^ appear to have any feeling of even the most striking changes in the temperature of the atmosphere.'' Grardiner says the Zulus '^ are perfect salamanders'' — arranging the burning faggots with their feet, and dipping their hands into the boiling contents of cooking-vessels. And it is said that the Abipones are ''extremely tolerant of the inclemencies of the sky.'' Simi- larly respecting the feelings caused by bodily injuries. Travellers in many lands e:q)ress surprise at the seeming indifference to pain displayed by inferior races. The calmness with which they undergo serious operations, forces on us the belief that the sufferings produced must be much less than would be produced in men of higher types.
Here we have a further characteristic which might have been inferred a priori. Pain of every kind, down even to the irritation produced by discomfort, entails a physiological waste of a detrimental kind. No less certain than the fact that continued agony is followed by exhaustion, which in feeble persons may be fata], is the fact that minor sufferings.
56 THS DATA Of 80CI0L0GT.
inclading the disagreeable sensations caused hj cold and hunger^ undermine the energies^ and Jh&j, when the vital balance is difficult to maintain^ destroy it. Among pri- mitive races it must continually have happened that in- dividuals with the keenest sensations^ worn more than others in bearing hardships and the pains of wounds, suc- cumbed when others did not. The most callous must have had the advantage when irremediable evils had to be borne; and thus relative callousness must have been made, by survival of the fittest, constitutional.
This physiological trait of primitive man has a meaning for us. Positive and negative discomforts — ^the sufferings which come from over-stimulated nerves, and the cravings which come from parts of the nervous system debarred from their normal actions — ^being in all cases the stimuli to exertion, it results that a constitution characterized by callousness, is a constitution less readily spurred into activity. A physical evil which will prompt a relatively-sensitive man to provide a remedy, will leave a relatively -insensitive man almost or quite inert: either he will submit passively, or he will be content with some inadequate, make-shift remedy.
So that beyond the sundry positive obstacles to advance, there exists at the outset this negative obstacle, that those simplest feelings which prompt efforts and cause improve- ments, are less intense.
§ 80. As preliminary to the summing up of these physical characters, I must name a most general one — early arrival at maturity. Other things equal, the less evolved types of organisms take shorter times to reach their complete forms than do the more evolved; and this contrast, conspicuous between men and most inferior creatures, is perceptible between varieties of men. There is reason for associating this difference with the difference in cerebral development. The greater costliness of the larger brain, which so long delays human maturity, as compared with mammalian ma- THS FKDfimrS UAH-— PffTSICAL. 57 iarity generally^ delays also the maturity of the ciyilJzed as compared with that of the savage. Causation apart^ however^ the fact is that (climate and other conditions being equal) the inferior rac^s reach puberty sooner than the superior races. Everywhere the remark is made that the women early bloom and early fade; and a corresponding trait of course holds in the men. This completion of growth and structure in a shorter period is of interest to us as implying less plasticity of nature: the rigidity and un- changeableness of adult life sooner make modification difficult. We shall hereafter see that this trait has note- worthy consequences. For the present it is enough to ob- serve that it tends to increase those obstacles to progress arising from the characters above described; which^ on now re-enumerating them^ we shall see are already great.
If the primitive man was on the average less than man as we now know him, there must have existed, during those earliest stages when there were only small groups of men capable of but the feeblest co-operation, with ineffective weapons, greater difficulties than afterwards in dealing with the larger animals, both enemies and prey. The inferiority of the lower limbs, alike in size and structure, must also have made primitive men less able to cope with powerful and swift creatures; whether they had to be escaped from or mastered. Besides the mechanical inconvenience attendant on his larger alimentary system, adapted to a very irregular supply of food, mostly inferior in quality, dirty, and un- cooked, primitive man had a variable supply of nervous power, smaller in average amount than that which follows good feeding. Constitutional callousness, even of itself adverse to progress, must, when coexisting with this lack of persistent energy, have hindered still further any change for the better. So that in three ways the impediments due to physical constitution were at first greater than after- wards. By his structure man was not so well fitted for dealing with his difficulties; the energies required for 58 THK DATA Of SOCIOLOQT.
overcoming them were smaller and irregular in flow; and lie was less sensitive to the evils he had to bear. At the time when his environment was entirely nnsubjngated^ he was least able and least anxious to subjugate it. While the resistances to progress were greatest^ the power and the stimulus to overcome them were smallest.
m3,^M CHAPTER VI.
THB PRIMITIVB MAN — ^EMOTIONAIj.
§ 31. A XEASUBB of evolution in liying things^ is iihe degree of correspondence between changes in the organism and coexistences and sequences in the enyironment. In the Prineiples of Psychology (§§ 189 — 176), it was shown that mental development is ''an adjustment of inner to outer relations that gradually extends in Space and Time, that becomes increasingly special and complex, and that has its elements ever more precisely co-ordinated and more completely integrated/' Though in that place chiefly ex- emplified as the law of intellectual progress, this is equally the law of emotional progress. The emotions are com- pounded out of simple feelings, or rather, out of the ideas of them; the higher emotions are compounded out of the lower emotions; and thus there is progressing integration. For the same reason there is progressing complexity: each larger consolidated aggregate of ideal feelings contains more varied, as well as more numerous, clusters of components. Extension of the correspondence in Space, too, though less manifest, may still be asserted: witness the difference between the proprietary feeling in the savage, responding only to a few material objects adjacent to him — ^weapons, decorations, food, place of shelter, etc. — and the proprietary feeling in the civilized man, who owns land in Canada, shares in an Australian mine, Egyptian stock, and mortgage- bouds on an Indian railway. And that extension of tho 60 THE DATA OJ 80CI0L0QT.
oorrespondence in Time may be asserted of the more- eTolved emotions^ will be manifest on remembering bow the sentiment of possession is gpratified bj acts of which the fruition can come only after many years^ and even gets pleasure from an ideal power over bequeathed property; and on remembering how the sentiment of justice seeks satisfaction in reforms that are to benefit future generations.
As was pointed out in a later diyision of the Principles of Psydiology (§§ 479—483)^ a more special measure of mental development is the degree of representativeness in the states of consciousness. Cognitions and feelings were both clas- sified in the ascending order of presentative, presentative- representative^ representative, and re-representative. This general order has been necessary; since there must have been presentation before representation, and representation before re-representation. It was shown, too, that this more special standard harmonizes with the more general standard; since increasing representativeness in the states of conscious- ness is shown by the more extensive integrations of ideas, by the greater definiteness with which they are represented, by the greater complexity of the integrated groups, as well as by the greater heterogeneity among their elements; and here it may be added that greater representativeness is also shown by the greater distances in space and time to which the representations extend.
There is a further measure which may be serviceably used along with the other two. In the Principles of Psychology, § 253, we saw that — ** Mental evolution, both intellectaal and emotional, may be measured by the degree of remoteness from primiUye reflex action. The forma- tion of sudden, irreversible conclusions on the slenderest evidence, is less distant from reflex action than is the formation of deliberate and modifiable conclusions after much eyidence has been collected. And similarly, the quick passage of simple emotions into the particular kinds of conduct they prompt, is less distant from reflex action than is the comparatively -hesitating passage of compound emotions into kinds of conduct determined by the joint instigation of their components."
TAB PBDCITIVS IfAN — SKOTIOKAL. 61 Here, tHen, are our guides in studying the primitive man as an emotional being. Considering liim as less evolved, we must expect to find liim comparatively wanting in those most complex emotions that respond to multitu- dinous and remote probabilities and contingencies. His consciousness differs from that of the civilized man, by consisting, to a much greater extent, of sensations and the simple represented feelings directly associated with them, and by containing fewer and weaker feelings in- volving representations of consequences beyond the proxi- mate. And the relatively-simple emotional consciousness thus characterized, we may expect to be consequently cha- racterized by less of that coherence and continuity which results when the promptings of direct desires are checked by sentiments responding to ultimate effects, and by more of that irregularity which results when each desire as it arises discharges itself in action before counter-desires have been awakened* § 82. On turning from these deductions to examine the &ct6 with a view to induction, we meet difficulties like those met in the last chapter. As in size and structure, the inferior races differ from one another enough to pro- duce some indefiniteness in our conception of the primi- tive man — ^physical; so in their passions and sentiments, the inferior races present contrasts which obscure the essential traits of the primitive man — emotional.
This last difficulty, like the first, is indeed one that might have been anticipated. The spreading of the race during all past epochs into multitudinous widely -contrasted habi- tats, entailing widely-unlike modes of life, has necessarily been accompanied by emotional specialization as well as by physical specialization. And beyond differentiations of character directly due to differences of natural circum- stances and resulting habits, the inferior varieties of men bave been made to differ by the degrees and durations of 62 THE DATA OF SOCIOLOaT.
social discipline they hare been subject to* Beferring to Bach nnlikenesses^ Mr. Wallace remarks that '' there is, in &ct, almost as much difference between the various races of savage as of civilized peoples/' To conceive the primitive man, therefore, as he existed when social aggregation commenced, we must generalize as well as we can this entangled and partiallj-conflicting evidence: led mainly by the traits common to the very lowest, and finding what guidance we may in the d priori conclusions set down above.
§ 33. The fundamental trait of impulsiveness, though one to be looked for as universal among inferior races, is not everywhere conspicuous. Taken in the mass, the aborigines of the New World seem impassive in comparison witii those of the Old World: some of them, indeed, exceeding the civilized peoples of Europe in ability to control their emotions. Tlirough stories, most people have been made familiar with this trait of the North-American Indians; and the statements of recent travellers confirm those of older ones. The Dakotahs are said to suffer with patience both physical and moral pains. The Creeks display ^' phlegmatic coldness and indifference.'^ With native peojples of South America it is the same. According to Burnand, the Guiana Indian, though ''strong in his affections, will lose his dearest relations, as he bears excruciating pains, with appa- rent stoical insensibility;'' and Humboldt speaks of his '' resignation." So, too, of the Uaupes: Wallace comments on '' the apathy of the Indian, who scarcely ever exhibits any feelings of regret on parting or of pleasure on his return." And that a character of this kind was wide-spread, seems implied by accounts of the ancient Mexicans, Peruvians, and peoples of Central America, who were not impulsive. Nevertheless, there are among these races traits of a contrary kind, more congruous with those of the uncivilized races generally. Spite of their usually unimpas- THl FBDOrm HAM — EMOTIONAL. 63 sioned behaviour^ the Dakotalis rise into frightful states of bloody foiy when killing buffaloes; and among the phleg- matic Creeks^ there are " very frequent suicides caused by trifling disappointments/' Some of the American indigenoH, too, do not show this apathy: as, in the North, the Snake- Indian, who is said to be ''a mere child, irritated by, and pleased with, a trifle/' and as, in the South, the Tnpis, of whom we read that ''if a savage struck a foot against a stone, he raged over it, and bit it like a dog/' Such non-impulsiyeness as exists in the American races may possibly be due to constitutional inertness. Among our- selves, there are people whose habitual equanimity results from want of vitality: being but half alive, the emotions produced in them by irritations have lese than the naual intensities. That apathy thus caused may account for this peculiariiy, seems, in South America, implied by the alleged sexual coldness.
Becoguizing what anomaly there may be in these facts, we find, throughout the rest of the world, a general con- grnity. Passing from North America to Asia, we come to the Kamtschadales; of whom we read that they are '' excitable, not to say (for men) hysterical. A light matter set them mad, or made them commit suicide;" and we come to the Kirghiz, who are said to be ''fickle and uncertain." Turning to Southern Asiatics, we find Burton asserting of the Bedouin that his valour is "fitful and uncertain." And while, of the Arabs, Denham remarks that " their common conver- sational intercourse appears to be a continual strife and quarrel," Palgirave says they will " chaffer half a day about a penny, while they will throw away the worth of pounds on the first asker." In the African races we find a like character. Captain Burton, saying that the East-African is, "like all other barbarians, a strange mixture of good and eril," describes him thus: — "He IB at once very good-tempered and hard-hearted, combative and cantioiis; kind at one moment, cruel, pitiless, and violent at 64!:m DATA OF SOCIOLOGY.
another; sociable and unaffectionate; superstitious and grossly irre- verent; brave and cowardly; servile and oppressive; obstinate, yet fickle and fond of change; with points of honour, but without a trace of honesty in word or deed; a lover of life, though addicted to suicide; covetous and parsimonious, yet thoughtless and improvident."
With the exception of the Bechuanas, of whom even temper and self-command are asserted^ the like is true of the races further south. Thus^ in the Damara^ Galton says the feeling of revenge is very transient — ''gives way to admiration of the oppressor.'^ Burchell describes the Hottentots as passing from extreme laziness to extreme eagerness for action. And the emotional nature of the Bushmen is summed up by Arbrousset as quick^ generous, headstrong, vindictive — ^very noisy quarrels are of daily occurrence: ''father and son will attempt to kill each other.'' Of the scattered societies inhabiting the Eastern Archipelago, those formed of Malays, or in which the Malay-blood predominates, do not exhibit this trait. The Malagasy are said to have "passions never violently ex- cited '' — are not quick in resenting injuries, but cherish the desire for revenge; and the pure Malay is described as not demonstrative. The rest, however, have the ordinary vari- ability. Among the Negrittos, the Papuan is " impetuous, excitable, noisy '*; the Fijians have "emotions easily roused but transient,'^ and " are extremely changeable in their disposition ''; the Andamanese "are all frightfully passionate and revengeful'^; and we are told of the Tas- manians that, " like all savages, they quickly change from smiles to tears.'' So, too, of the other lowest races: there are the Fuegians, who "have hasty tempers," and "are loud and furious talkers "; there are the Australians, whose impulsiveness Sturt implies by saying that the "angry Aus- tralian jin exceeds the European scold," and that a man " remarkable for haughtiness and reserve sobbed long when his nephew was taken from him." Bearing in mind that 8uch non-impulBiveneas as is shown by the Malays occurs THB PRDDTlTie MAN— nCOTIONiLL. 65 in a race ikat baa reached a considerable degree of civili- sation; and tliat the lowest races, as the Andamanese, Tasmanians^ Fneg^ns^ Australians^ betray impnlsiyeness in a Tery decided manner; we may safely assert it to be a trait of primitive man, possessed, probably, in a greater degree than is implied by the above quotations. What the earliest <diaracter was, we may best conceive by reading the following vivid description of a Boshman. Asserting his simian appearance, Lichtenstein continues:—- " What gives the more verity to such a comparison was the vivacity of his eves, and the flexihility of his eyebrows, which he worked up and down with every change of countenance. Even his nostrils and the comera of his mouth, nay his very ears, moved involuntarily, ex- pressing his hasty transitions from eager desire to watchful distrust. * * When a piece of meat was (^ven him, and half-rising he stretched out a distrustfcd arm to take it, he snatched it hastily, and stuck it immediately into the fire, peering around with his Uttle keen eyes, as if fearing that some one should take it away again: — aU this was done with such looks and gestures, that anyone must have been ready to swear he had taken the example of them entirely from an ape."
Indirect evidence that early human nature differed from later human nature by having this extreme emotional varia- bility, is yielded us by the contrast between the child and the adult among ourselves. For on the hypothesis of evolution, the civilized man, passing through phases repre- senting phases passed through by the race, will, early in life, betray this impulsiveness which the early race had. The saying that the savage has the mind of a child with the passions of a man (or, as it would be more correctly put, has adult passions which act in a childish manner) thus possesses a deeper meaning than appears. There is a genetic relationship between the two natures such that, allowing {or differences of kind and degree in the emotions, we may •regard.the.co**ordmation of theou in the child as fairly representing the co-ordination in the primitive mau.
§ S4. The more special emotional traits are in large part 66 THX DATA OF 8OCIOL0OT.
dependent on^ and further illustratiYe of^ tbis generd trait. This relative impulsiveness^ this smaller departure from primitive reflex action^ this lack of the re-representa- tive emotions which hold the sintpler ones in cheeky is ao- companied by improvidence.
The Australians are described as ^' incapable of anything^ like persevering labour the reward of which is in futurity." According to Kolben^ the Hottentots are ''the laziest people under the sun; " and we are told that with the Bushmen it is ^'always either a feast or a famine." Passing to the indi- genes of India, it is said of the Todas that they are ''indolent and slothful"; of the Bhils, that they have "a contempt and dislike to labour " — ^will half starve rather than work; while of the Santals we read that they have not " the un- conquerable laziness of the very old Hill-tribes." So, from Northern Asia, the Kirghiz may be taken as exemplifying idleness; and in America, we have the fact that none of tho aboriginal peoples, if uncoerced, show capacity for industry. I^^ the North, cut off from his hunting-life, the Indian^ capable of no other, decays and disappears; and in the -Bouth, the tribes disciplined by the Jesuits lapsed into their original state, or a worse, when the stimuli and restraints ceased. All which &cts are in part ascribable to inadequate consciousness of the future — ^feeble grasp of distant results. Where, as among the Sandwich Islanders and in sundry Sfalayo-Polynesian societies, we find considerable industry^ it goes along with such a social state as implies discipline throughout a long past: conditions have caused considerable divergence from the primitive nature. It is true that perseverance with a view to remote benefit occurs amongr savages. They bestow much time and pains on their weapons, etc.: six months to make as many arrows, a year in hollowing out a bowl, and many years in drilling a hole through a stone. But in these cases, beyond the fact that the benefits are simple, direct, and conspicuous, it is to be observed that little muscular effort is requii'ed, and that the