546 LIFE : OUTLINES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 



mate. Again, in the male, as affection deepens and extends, we have 

 that courageous devotion which in man we call chivalry, yet stc 

 the beginnings of in Natiu-e, as even by the barn-door. 



Chivalry may he more and more inspired by purity; as to that 

 combination of ascetic ideahsm and intensity with adventurous, 

 heroic, and even spiritual quest, which inspired the tale-tellers and 

 singers of the Arthurian and mediaeval cycles, and again the romantic 

 writers of later days. And correspondingly for the feminine type, 

 which at its higher levels has ever inspired man towards ideals, and 

 to their realisation as well. Here Jeanne d'Arc is the salient type 

 of woman whose heroic idealism has not only inspired action, but 

 even headed it; hence with her brilhant and tragic epic of real life 

 surpassing those of romantic chivalry. And though women and men 

 of such spirit and career no longer bear armour, nor often attain to 

 glorious achievement, some of their like ever reappear, and may 

 more frequently. Thus, in her own way and times, the character and 

 career of St. Teresa present another illustrious example of the union 

 of spiritual insight with constructive leadership; nor has she been 

 without successors; but has now and then a modern analogue still. 



An outline so bare as the above obviously admits of fuller devel- 

 opment: but it indicates one line of psychobiological approach 

 towards an ethic of the sexes, and with these mutual influences 

 uniting towards their best. But so far there has been no question of 

 the evils with which sex-development is beset; nor yet of those 

 which arise from the converse cause, of individuality repressed for 

 lack of it. Here the conception of life, as essentially bi-systematic — 

 i.e. nutritive and self-maintaining as well as reproductive and 

 specics-continuing-=-affords us a scale on which steps of ascent can 

 be marked, and corrcsjx)nding descents and deteriorations also. 

 So this may be expressed simply and clearly as a graph starting 

 with N and thence proceeding to R, for nutritive and reproductive 

 systems resjx^ctively; the latter with its later development expresses 

 also a fuller maturation of N, a higher individuality N3. On the next 

 Rj level, offspring apjx^ar, again with heightened individuality, that 

 of parenthood (N\). On the next level families are associated by ties 

 of kin, R3. with heightened and broadened jXTSonalities once more 

 (N^). Above and beyond this level we may mark out successive 

 higher spaces for wider and wider relations, those of social groupings 

 from small to greater, and to greatest attainable, with corresponding 

 opportunity and exercise for individualities higher and higher 

 again, and more fully and widely humanised accordingly. So far, 

 then, the ascent of individuality in its organic and social develop- 

 ment, and up through successive stages above the initial self- 

 regarding and pre-reproductive level. Yet conversely, below this 

 base-line there appear, and too readily, corresponding levels of 

 descent. For in man the nutritive life may too easily degrade to 



