Chap. XIX. MENTAL POWURS OF MAN AND WOMAN. 329 



rior in these same qualities. Thus man has ultimately- 

 become superior to 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 probable that man 

 would have become as superior in mental endowment 

 to woman, as the peacock is in ornamental plumage to 

 the peahen. 



It must be borne in mind that the tendency in cha- 

 racters acquired at a late period of life by either sex, 

 to be transmitted to the same sex at the same age, and 

 of characters acquired at an early age to be transmitted 

 to both sexes, are rules which, though general, do not 

 always hold good. If they always held good, we might 

 conclude (but I am here wandering beyond my proper 

 bounds) that the inherited effects of the early education 

 of boys and girls would be transmitted equally to both 

 sexes ; so that the present inequality between the sexes 

 in mental power could not be effaced by a similar 

 course of early training ; nor can it have been caused 

 by their dissimilar early training. In order that woman 

 should reach the same standard as man, she ought, 

 when nearly adult, to be trained to energy and perse- 

 verance, and to have her reason and imagination exer- 

 cised to the highest point; and then she would j)ro- 

 bably transmit these qualities chiefly to her adult 

 daughters. The whole body of women, however, could 

 not be thus raised, unless during many generations 

 the women who excelled in the^ above robust virtues 

 were married, and produced offspring in larger numbers 

 than other women. As before remarked with respect 

 to bodily 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 

 themselves and their families ; and this will tend to keep 



