INFLUENCE OF SEXUAL SELECTION. IO3 



terestirig work, which contains the much-disputed applica- 

 tion of his theory to Man, and which, therefore, completes 

 his great doctrine. In this work, entitled " The Descent of 

 Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex," ^^ Darwin has 

 openly and most logically drawn the inference, about which 

 he had before purposely maintained silence, that Man also 

 must have been evolved from lower animals. In a most 

 masterly manner he discussed especially the very important 

 part paid by Sexual Selection in the progressive exaltation 

 of Man, and of all other higher animals. According to this 

 theory, the careful selection which the two sexes exercise on 

 each other, in relation to their sexual connection and re- 

 production, and the aesthetic taste evinced by the higher 

 animals in this matter, has a most important influence on 

 the progressive evolution of forms and in the distinction of 

 the sexes. The male animals seek out the most beautiful 

 females, and, on the other hand, the females choose the 

 finest males, so that the specific, and at the same time the 

 sexual character is continuously ennobled. In this respect 

 many of the higher animals exercise a better taste and a 

 more impartial judgment than does man. But even among 

 men sexual selection has given rise to a noble form of 

 family life, which is the chief foundation on which civiliza- 

 tion and social states have been built. The human race 

 certainly owes its origin in great measure to the perfected 

 Sexual Selection which our ancestors exercised in the choice 

 of wives. (Cf Chapter XI. of the "History of Creation," 

 and pp. Si-i-SiT in the second volume of the Generelle 

 Morphologie.) 



In all essential points Darwin approves of the general 

 outhne of the genealogical oree given in the Generelle Mor- 



