Chap. XX. Man — Mode of Sexual Selection. 595 



and all the offspring, as far as that was possible, would be reared ; 

 bo that the struggle for existence would be periodically ex- 

 cessively severe. Thus during these times all the conditions for 

 sexual selection would have been more favourable than at a 

 later period, when man had advanced in his intellectual powers 

 but had retrograded in his instincts. Therefore, whatever 

 influence sexual selection may have had in producing the 

 differences between the races of man, and between man and 

 the higher Quadrumana, this influence would have been more 

 powerful at a remote period than at the present day, though 

 probably not yet wholly lost. 



The Manner of Action of Sexual Selection with Mankind. — With 

 primeval men under the favourable conditions just stated, and 

 with those savages who at the present time enter into any 

 marriage tie, sexual selection has probably acted in the following 

 manner, subject to greater or less interference from female in- 

 fanticide, early betrothals, &c. The strongest and most vigorous 

 men, — those who could best defend and hunt for their families, 

 who were provided with the best weapons and possessed the 

 most property, such as a large number of dogs or other 

 animals, — would succeed in rearing a greater average number of 

 offspring than the weaker and poorer members of the same 

 tribes. There can, also, be no doubt that such men would 

 generally be able to select the more attractive women. At 

 present the chiefs of nearly every tribe throughout the world 

 succeed in obtaining more than one wife. I hear from Mr. 

 Mantell, that until recently, almost every girl in New' Zealand, 

 who was pretty, or promised to be pretty, was tapu to some 

 chief. With the Kafirs, as Mr. C. Hamilton states, 17 " the 

 " chiefs generally have the pick of the women for many miles 

 " round, and are most persevering in establishing or confirming 

 " their privilege." We have seen that each race has its own 

 style of beauty, and we know that it is natural to man to admire 

 each characteristic point in his domestic animals, dress, orna- 

 ments, and personal appearance, when carried a little beyond the 

 average. If then the several foregoing propositions be admitted, 

 and I cannot see that they are doubtful, -it would be an inex- 

 plicable circumstance, if the selection of the more attractive women 

 by the more powerful men of each tribe, who would rear on an 

 average a greater number of children, did not after the lapse 

 of many generations somewhat modify the character of the tribe. 



When a foreign breed of our domestic animals is introduced 

 into a new country, or when a native breed is long and carefully 

 17 ' Anthropological Review,' Jan. 1870, p. xvi. 



