32 THE COURTSHIP OF ANIMALS 



The part which sexual selection has played in deter- 

 mining the physical characters of the human race has 

 without doubt been overestimated. Its influence may 

 be said to have ceased with the development of the 

 emotional side of his nature. This momentous process 

 began with the male and had its roots in the ebullitions 

 of his inherently amorous nature which has been the 

 dominating factor in his career, and will be to the end, 

 however much its influence may be disguised by the 

 complex conditions of civilization. 



These emotions, varying in kind and intensity, are 

 such as are embraced in the term " Love " in the highest 

 sense. They control the selection of mates, but this 

 selection takes no account, save by accident, of qualities 

 which have any value as factors of race-survival. In 

 the lower animals these are determined by natural selec- 

 tion, and sexual selection adopts as it were the material 

 furnished thereby. It " selects " only in so far as it 

 eliminates the non-sexually inclined, and those which 

 lack the qualities essential to ensure reproduction, such 

 as weapons for example. In human communities natural 

 selection is largely avoided, and " mate-hunger " seems 

 now to be swayed by more than the mere desire for its 

 satisfaction. With the development of human faculty 

 new factors have been introduced, complex emotions 

 have come into being, whose influences are as yet only 

 vaguely understood. Whither are they tending ? What 

 will be their effect on race-progress ? These are matters 

 of grave importance to us all, and to the student of 

 Eugenics in particular. 



Of man's higher emotions, which, it is contended, now 

 govern his conduct, probably the earliest to assert itself 

 was the aesthetic. His quickening mentaHty could not 



