328 SEXUAL SELECTION : MAN. Part IL 



during manbood ; tliey will, moreover, have been 

 strengtbened by use during tbis same period of life. 

 Consequently, in accordance witb tbe principle often 

 alluded to, we migbt expect tbat tbey would at least 

 tend to be transmitted cbiefly to tbe male offspring 

 at tbe corresponding period of manhood. 



Now, when two men are put into competition, or a 

 man with a woman, who possess every mental quality 

 in the same perfection, with tbe exception that tbe 

 one has higher energy, perseverance, and courage, 

 tbis one will generally become more eminent, what- 

 ever the object may be, and will gain tbe victory.^^ 

 He may be said to possess genius — for genius has been 

 declared by a great authority to be patience ; and 

 patience, in tbis sense, means unflinching, undaunted 

 perseverance. But tbis view of genius is perhaps 

 deficient ; for without the higher powers of the imagi- 

 nation and reason, no eminent success in many subjects 

 can be gained. These latter as well as the former 

 faculties will have been developed in man, partly 

 through sexual selection, — tbat is, through the contest of 

 rival males, and partly through natural selection, — that 

 is, from success in tbe general struggle for life ; and as 

 in both cases the struoffle will have been durino' 

 maturity, tbe characters thus gained will have been 

 transmitted more fullv to the male than to the female 

 ofispring. It accords with the view tbat some of our 

 mental faculties have been modified or strengthened 

 through sexual selection, that, firstly, they undergo, as 

 is generally admitted, a considerable change at puberty, 

 and, secondlv, that eunuchs remain throughout life infe- 



rs J. Stuart Mill remarks ('The Subjection of Women,' 18G9, p. 122), 

 " the things in -which man most excels \Yoman are those which requhe 

 " most plodding, and long hammering at single thoughts." "What is 

 this but energy and perseverance ? 



