THE KINSHIP OF LIFE. 2 / 



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 not s j m pi v an elongation or continu- 

 parentage brings , . ,, , .... 



variet ance of the parent, but a new life 



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 

 "Vom Vater hab' famous poem V om 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 schonsten 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 Xenien, vi. 



