SEXUAL selection: man. PaetIL 



for the women in all barbarous nations are compelled 

 to work at least as hard as the men. With civilised 

 people the arbitrament of battle for the possession of 

 the women has long ceased ; on the other hand, the men, 

 as a general rule, have to work harder than the women 

 for their mutual subsistence ; and thus their greater 

 strength will have been kept up. 



I)iffere7iee in the Menial Powers of the two Sexes. — 

 AYith respect to differences of this nature betv. een man 

 and woman, it is probable that sexual selection has 

 played a very important part. I am aware that some 

 writers doubt wli ether there is any inherent difference ; 

 but this is at least probable from the analogy of the 

 , lower animals which present other secondary sexual 

 characters. No one will dispute that the bull differs 

 in disposition from the cow, the wild-boar from the 

 sow, the stallion from the mare, and, as is well ]mo\vn 

 to the keepers of menageries, the males of the larger 

 apes from the females. Woman seems to differ from 

 mail in mental disposition, chiefly in her greater tender- 

 ness and less selfishness ; and this holds good even 

 with savages, as shewn by a well-known passage in 

 Mungo Park's Travels, and by statements made by 

 many other travellers. Woman, owing to her maternal 

 instincts, displays these qualities towards her infants 

 in an eminent degree ; therefore it is likely that she 

 should often extend them towards her fellow-creatures. 

 Man is the rival of other men ; he delights in com- 

 petition, and this leads to ambition which passes too 

 easily into selfishness. These latter qualities seem to 

 be his natural and unfortunate birthright. It is gene- 

 rally admitted that with woman the powers of intuition, 

 of rapid perception, and j^erhaps of imitation, are more 

 strongly marked than in man ; but some, at least, of 



