THE KINSHIP OF LIFE. 



27 



of the structure. For " natural selection " must, in a 

 way, be operative among the organs of the body. " Die 

 Kampf der Theile," as it has been called by a German 

 writer (" the battle of the parts "), is a real struggle in 

 which fitness determines survival. 



It is not merely the simple structures and the com- 

 mon instincts which may be developed and fixed by 

 natural selection. 



The differentiation of the sexes is a result of the 



demand for greater variation. It is the fact of bisexual 



parentage that makes of each individual 



How bisexual ^^^ simply an " elongation or continu- 



^^ . ance of the parent," but a new life 



variety. ^ 



which shall be the resultant of the lives 

 and experiences of its ancestors, a mosaic of the char- 

 acters of its parents and its parents' parentage. By the 

 fact of sex no individual can be the mere slavish copy 

 of any other. Through the operation of sex the law 

 of heredity which is to promote sameness is made sub- 

 servient to the equal need of the promotion of variety. 

 This idea of the formation of the mosaic of per- 

 sonal character is the motive of Goethe's 



"VomVaterhab' famous poem, Vom Vater hab' ich die 

 ich die Statur." _, ^ 



Statur.* 



* " Vom Vater hab' ich die Statur, 

 Des Lebens ernstes Fuhren ; 

 Vom Mutterchen die Frohnatur 

 Und Lust zu fabuliren. 

 Urahnherr war der schbnsten Hold, 

 Das spukt so hin und wieder. 

 Urahnfrau liebte Schmuck und Gold, 

 Das zuckt wohl durch die Glieder. 

 Sind nun die Elemente nicht 

 An dem Complex zu trennen ; 

 Was ist denn an dem ganzen Wicht 

 Original zu nennen?" — Goethe, Zahme Xejiien, vi. 



