Chap. XX] MANXER OF ACTION. 355 



animals, such as bright colors and various ornaments, have 

 been acquired by the more attractive males having been 

 preferred by the females. There are, however, exceptional 

 cases in which the males, instead of having been the se- 

 lected, have been the selectors. We recognize such cases 

 by the females having been rendered more highly orna- 

 mented than the males — their ornamental characters having 

 been transmitted exclusively or chiefly to their female 

 offspring. One such case has been described in the order 

 to which man belongs, namely, with the Rhesus monkey. 



Man is more powerful in body and mind than woman, 

 and in the savage state he keeps her in a far more abject 

 state of bondage than does the male of any other animal ; 

 therefore it is not surprising that he should have gained 

 the power of selection. Women are everywhere conscious 

 of the value of their beauty; and when they have the 

 means, they take more delight in decorating themselves 

 with all sorts of ornaments than do men. They borrow 

 the plumes of male birds, with which Nature decked this 

 sex in order to charm the females. As women have long 

 been selected for beauty, it is not surprising that some of 

 the successive variations should have been transmitted in 

 a limited manner ; and consequently that women should 

 have transmitted their beauty in a somewhat higher degree 

 to their female than to their male offspring. Hence women 

 have become more beautiful, as most persons will admit, 

 than men. Women, however, certainly transmit most of 

 their characters, including beauty, to their offspring of both 

 sexes ; so that the continued preference by the men of 

 each race of the more attractive women, according to their 

 standard of. taste, would tend to modify in the same man- 

 ner all the individuals of both sexes belonging to the 

 race. 



With respect to the othA' form of sexual selection 

 (which with the lower animals is much the most common), 



