THE PLAY OF ANIMALS. 241 



a kind of unconscious choosing does take place which is 

 in a pecuHar sense sexual selection, for the female is un- 

 doubtedly more easily won by the male that most 

 strongly excites her sexual instinct. That such a selec- 

 tion as this is difficult or even incapable of proof from 

 its very nature is no argument against its existence. 



Wallace says, indeed, that all the things a young 

 man may do to make himself acceptable in the eyes of 

 his beloved, while they do perhaps please her, have no 

 influence in inducing her to accede to his wishes.* But 

 is this a fact? A conscious influence would scarcely 

 be allowed to them, but will not a fine figure, good 

 address, noble carriage, and even tasteful dress prove 

 a powerful spur to unconscious choice? Will not the 

 soldier in his handsome uniform be more acceptable 

 than the same man in his working blouse? Has not 

 the actor or the singer who has distinguished himself 

 a better reception than a man quite his equal, but en- 

 gaged in a commonplace business? 



And now, putting aside everything that distin- 

 guishes man from the other animals, all our apprecia- 

 tion of intelligence and culture, all higher aesthetic 

 influences, all considerations of a practical and mate- 

 rial nature — conceive such a human race and suppose a 

 condition of absolute free love with every spiritual 

 ground for preference removed — must we not suppose 

 that such (impossible) human beings left to the mere 

 processes of evolution would become stronger and more 

 beautiful in the course of a hundred or more genera- 

 tions? 



I can not, then, admit that sexual selection is entire- 

 ly subverted by Wallace's conclusions. If we accept his 



* Darwinism, p. 286. 



