298 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



social instincts, including in this term the family ties the more im- 

 portant elements being love and sympathy. 



Thus it appears that while sexual selection and intellectual de- 

 velopment have gone hand-in-hand, it is no less true that the moral 

 and emotional sides of, human nature have been developed by the 

 operation of the same laws mainly through the female portion of the 

 race. Though Darwin scarcely does more than touch upon this phase 

 of the subject, he says: "Woman seems to differ from man in mental 

 disposition, chiefly in her greater tenderness and less selfishness ; " 

 and again : " It is indeed fortunate that the law of equal transmission 

 of characters to both sexes has commonly prevailed throughout the 

 whole class of mammals; otherwise it is probable that man would 

 have become as superior in mental endowments to woman as the pea- 

 cock is in ornamental plumage to the peahen." 



I shall refrain from indulging in any " would-have-beens " upon the 

 moral asj)ects of this picture, in the contingency to which Darwin 

 alludes, since we are concerned only with what is. 



Our authority continues; "That there is a tendency to the equaliz- 

 ing of the sexes is undoubted in many of the secondary sexual charac- 

 teristics ; woman bestows these superior qualities on her offspring of 

 both sexes." 



Applying the principles, to the operation of which he imputes man's 

 mental superiority, we will add though in a greater degree upon her 

 adult female offspring, since it is during her maturity that these quali- 

 ties of greater tenderness and less selfishness are most called into ex- 

 ercise. 



Although Darwin states that man has been more modified than 

 woman by the law of heredity in connection with sexual selection, he 

 admits its force in the development of both sexes by many statements 

 which might be quoted, were it necessary. The principal argument 

 against its equal force in the two cases is found in the fact that the 

 young of both sexes in many animals, including the human, most re- 

 semble the mother. While this is true in a limited sense, the points 

 of greater resemblance being mainly of a physical character, as supe- 

 rior softness and smoothness of skin, greater delicacy of muscles, mus- 

 cular tissue, etc., it is not applicable to the qualities of tenderness 

 and unselfishness, the cruelty and selfishness of children, especially 

 boys, being proverbial. 



Still quoting from the same work : " 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 themselves and their families, and 

 this will tend to keep up, or even increase, their mental powers, and, 

 as a consequence, the present inequality between the sexes. ... In 

 order that woman should reach the same standard as man, she ought, 

 when nearly adult, to be trained to energy and perseverance, and to 



