396 GENEKAL SUMMARY Part II. 



through the laws of variation and natural selection, 

 than to explain the birth of the individual through the 

 laws of ordinary reproduction. The birth both of the 

 species and of the individual are equally parts of that 

 grand sequence of events, wliich our minds refuse to 

 accept as the result of blind chance. The understand- 

 ing revolts at such a conclusion, whether or not we 

 are able to believe that every slight variation of struc- 

 ture, — the union of each pair in marriage, — the disse- 

 mination of each seed, — and other such events, have 

 all been ordained for some special pur]30se. 



Sexual selection has been treated at great length in 

 these volumes ; for, as I have attempted to shew, it has 

 played an important part in the history of the organic 

 world. As summaries have been given to each chapter, 

 it would be superfluous here to add a detailed sum- 

 mary. I am aware that much remains doubtful, but I 

 have endeavoured to give a fair view of the whole case. 

 In the lower divisions of the animal kingdom, sexual 

 selection seems to have done nothinii^: such animals 

 are often affixed for life to the same spot, or have the 

 two sexes combined in the same individual, or what is 

 still more important, their perceptive and intellectual 

 faculties are not sufficiently advanced to allow of the 

 feelings of love and jealousy, or of the exertion of choice. 

 "When, however, we come to the Arthropoda and Yerte- 

 brata, even to the lowest classes in these two great Sub- 

 Kingdoms, sexual selection has effected much ; and it 

 deserves notice that we here find the intellectual facul- 

 ties developed, but in two very distinct lines, to the 

 highest standard, namely in the Hymenoptera (ants, 

 bees, &c.) amongst the Arthropoda, and in the Mam- 

 malia, including man, amongst the Yertebrata. 



In the most distinct classes of the animal kingdom, 



