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Show 328 SEXUAL SELECTION: J.\iAN. PAnT II. during manhood; they wiJJ, moreover, haYe been strengthened by nsc during this same period of life. Con ·cqncntly, in accordance with the principle often alluded to, we might xpect that they would at least te1_1d to be transmitted chiefly to the male off~pring at the concsponding period of manhood. Now, when two men arc put into compcbtion, or a man wilh a woman, who possess every mental quality in the same perfection, with the exception that the one has higher energy, perseverance, ancl courage, this one will generally become more eminent, what~ ever the object may be, and will gain the victory.23 lie may be said to possess genius-for genius has Leen declared by a great authority to be patience; and patience, in this son c, moans unflinching, undaunted perRcvcnmce. But this view of genius is perhaps deficient; for without the higher powers of tho imagi~ nation and reason, no eminent success in many suLjocb; can be guined. But these latter as well ns tho former faculties will have been developed in man, partly through sexual selection,-that is, through tho contest of rival males, and partly through natural selection~-that is, from success in tho general struggle for life ; and as in both cases the struggle will have been clnrino· matnrity, the chanwters thus gained will have been transmitted more fully to the male than to the f<.:male offspring. Thns man has ultimately become superior t<:> woman. It is, indeed, fortunate that the law of the equal transmission of characters to both sexes has commonly prevailed throughout the whole class of mammals; otherwise it is probaLle that man would have 23 J. Stuart Mill remarks (' '1'110 Subjection of Women,' lSG!), p. 122), "the thingd in which man mor:ct excels wom:tn nrc those which require '' most plodding, and long lmmmering at single thoughts." What i1:1 this but energy and perscrerancc ·~ <..'liAr. XIX. MEN'l'AL POWEUS OF MAN AND WOl\IAN. :3:29 become as superior in mental endowment to woman, as the peacock is in ornamental plumngo to th peahen. It must be borne in mind that the tendency in characters acquired at a late period of lifo by either sex, to be transmitted to the same sex at the same ago, and of characters acquired at an early nge to be transmitted to both :;exes, are rules which, thongh genc•rttl, do not always hold good. If they always helcl good, we might coneludo (lmt I am here wandering beyond my proper bounds) that the inherited effects of tho early oclueation of uoys and girls woulJ be transmitted equally to both sexes; so that the present in quality between the soxe in mental power could not be effaced Ly a similar tourse of early training; nor ean it have been caused by their dissimilar early training. In order that woman should reach the same standard as man, she ought, when nearly adnlt, to be trained to euorgy aucl perseverance, and to have her reason and imagination exer~ ciso ~l to tbe highest point; and th('n she would pro~ bably transmit these qualities chiefly to h~r adult daughters. The whole body of women, however, could not be thus raised, unless during many generations tho women who excelled in the above robust virtues 'rere married, and produced offspring in larger numbers than other women. As before remarh:ecl with respect to boclily strength, although men do not now fight for the sake of obtaining wives, and this form of selection has passed away, yet they generally have to undergo, during manhood, a severe struggle in order to maintain themse.l ves and their families; and this will tend to keep up or oven inerease their mental powers, and, as a consequence, the present inequality bet,Yeen the sexes.2<1 24 An ol>servntion by Vogt bem·s on this subject: he any~, it is a " rcnu~rkuble circumstance, that the difference between tho sexc~. !11:1 |