Darwin s Ethical Theory. 183 



phases he seeks to arrange in a graduated scale. 

 But besides mere life there is spirit, with its 

 powers of apprehending the true, the good, and 

 the beautiful. And with regard to those mental 

 powers which, conversing with reality, seize upon 

 the truth, we have found Darwin registering 

 their progressive manifestations without any pre 

 tence of accounting for their origin. The logical 

 faculty, the mathematical faculty, he accepts as 

 ultimate facts ; and whether they are comparable 

 with animal activities or not, he recognizes the 

 futility of pretending to show how they came 

 into being. The same holds of his treatment of 

 the sense of the beautiful. Without attempting 

 a genesis of the aesthetic faculty, he contents him 

 self with observing, among animals in all stages 

 of development, actual instances of perception 

 of the beautiful. And a wonderful collection of 

 facts he makes, as fascinating as novel and fresh ! 

 The observations constitute the decisive moment 

 in his theory of sexual selection. As natural se 

 lection turns upon the success of both sexes in the 

 struggle for life, sexual selection depends upon 

 the success of certain individuals over others of 

 the same sex in relation to the propagation of the 

 species. Among nearly all animals there is a 

 struggle between the males for the possession of 



