454 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Yol. vi. 



little doubt can be entertained as to the general truth of the 

 above assertion. There is, therefore, a greater disproportion in 

 strength between the sexes among civilized than among savage 

 races; though, on Mr. Darwin's views, the cause which has led 

 to this disproportion must have ceased to operate for many suc- 

 cessive generations of the former. 



Passing on now to the diiferences in the mental powers of the 

 two sexes, Mr. Darwin adopts the view wiiich most impartial 

 and unbiassed reasoners affect, namely, that man is decidedly the 

 superior of the women in intellectual calibre. In spite of all 

 that has been said of late about the equality between the sexes, 

 Mr. Darwin concludes that '' the chief distinction in the intel- 

 lectual powers of the two sexes is shown by man attaining to a 

 higher eminence, in whatever he takes up, than woman can 

 attain — whether requiring deep thought, reason, or imagination, 

 or merely the use of the senses and hands.'' Accepting this in- 

 tellectual difference, there are also other differences sufficiently 

 weighty to support the view that the two sexes differ fundamen- 

 tally in their mental constitution. If this be admitted, we might 

 go farther than Mr. Darwin, and we might defend the proposi- 

 tion that the difference between the sexes, in the case of man, is 

 one essentially and primarily mental, and that the physical dif- 

 ference is a secondary and non-essential one, truly flowing from 

 and depending on the former. Facts are by no means wanting 

 which would support this view, but they are mostly unsuitable 

 for introduction here. 



We next have a remarkable section on the voice and musical 

 powers of man and some of the lower animals, the leading feature 

 in which is the proposition that " although the sounds emitted 

 by animals of all kinds serve many purposes, a strong case can be 

 made out that the vocal organs were primarily used and perfected 

 in relation to the propagation of the species." This is no new 

 theory, and we have not time to analyse here the grounds upon 

 which it rests. We may observe, however, that this theory 

 leads to what we cannot but regard as a very debasing view of 

 what music is and what it can effect. We are called upon, in 

 fact, to believe that the feelings called up by music, of which 

 Herbert Spencer remarks that it ^' arouses dormant sentiments 

 of which we had not conceived the possibility and do not know 

 the meaning," are merely reminiscences of the passions felt by 

 some "half-human progenitor of man" during the season of 



