SEX AND SOCIETY 237 



economic independence, sexual selection will 

 become better balanced. 



Let us again emphasise our point that the 

 evolution of civilisation has brought us to 

 face problems which women are more capable 

 of solving than men. The responsibilities of 

 women are correspondingly great. " An en- 

 lightened culture of motherhood," eugenic 

 practice in regard to child-bearing, the educa- 

 tion of the young child these are essentially 

 woman's problems. And if we are to look 

 hopefully to the future, she must face up to 

 taking her share in readjusting marriage laws, 

 in working out specialised lines of education, 

 in trying to lessen sweated labour, and in 

 helping to solve the problem now so closely 

 bound up with it of prostitution. 



The scientific position must be sceptical 

 and careful. Civilisation is so complex and 

 changeful that not the wisest can see more 

 than a few moves ahead. It is like looking 

 at the development of an animal whose adult 

 form is unknown ; we see a group of cells here 

 and another there, and we think that they 

 are shaping as if they were predestined to 

 become this organ or that, but who can be 

 sure ? The more living a thing is the more it 

 shows of the unpredictable and the unex- 

 pected. Therefore we are not in sympathy 

 with those who dogmatise on what they call 

 the fit and proper lines of feminine evolution. 

 Who can tell what men or women can do 

 effectively until a fair trial is made ? Social 

 evolution is an experimental art. And one 

 quite unworkable plan is that man should 



