CHAPTER X. 



THE THEORY OF SEXUAL SELECTION, AND 

 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 



ALTHOUGH the explanatory value of the Darwinian 

 theory of natural selection is, as we have now seen, 

 incalculably great, it nevertheless does not meet those 

 phenomena of organic nature which perhaps more 

 than any other attract the general attention, as well 

 as the general admiration, of mankind : I mean all 

 that class of phenomena which go to constitute the 

 Beautiful. Whatever value beauty as such may have, 

 it clearly has not a life-preserving value. The gorgeous 

 plumage of a peacock, for instance, is of no advantage 

 to the peacock in his struggle for life, and therefore 

 cannot be attributed to the agency of natural selection. 

 Now this fact of beauty in organic structures is a fact 

 of wide generality almost as wide, indeed, as is the 

 fact of their utility. Mr. Darwin, therefore, suggested 

 another hypothesis whereby to render a scientific 

 explanation of this fact. Just as by his theory of 

 natural selection he sought to explain the major fact 

 of utility, so did he endeavour to explain the minor 

 fact of beauty by a theory of what he termed Sexual 

 Selection. 



