64 DARWINISM AND POLITICS. 



civilised men than between those of savage and 

 civilised women, to what must it be due ? 



(a) Those who believe that acquired cha- 

 racteristics (i.e. characteristics produced by 

 agencies external to the organism) are trans- 

 mitted, must explain this difference by the 

 difference in institutions, laws and customs. 

 Well, then what these have done before in 

 one direction they may do again in another. 

 And the same education and the same responsi- 

 bilities will, in course of time, put the average 

 woman on the same level with the average 

 man. (b) If use and disuse are not allowed 

 as explanations, then this alleged brain in- 

 feriority of women must be due either to natural 

 or to sexual selection. (a) If to natural 

 selection, this would mean that in the struggle 

 for existence those races or tribes have suc- 

 ceeded best in which the males have on the 

 average had better brains than the females. 

 And this may have been so in times when 

 constant fighting was necessary for existence, 

 though in such a case it would be the greater 

 superiority of the male and not the greater 

 relative inferiority of the female that had been 

 the real cause of success. But this affords no 



