

126 NATURAL SELECTION AND 



who tells us that the State is male, and the 

 Church female (an opinion greatly supported, 

 if not suggested, by the genders of the German 

 words), or by those who speak of the Teutons as 

 a masculine race, and the Celts as a feminine, 

 and so on. But we need not spend time on 

 these grammatical or poetical fancies. It is 

 very generally admitted that sex, as a cause for 

 variation, means mixture of elements ; and thus 

 its equivalent in social evolution is mingling of 

 races and all that that brings with it. The 

 Hellenic colonies in Asia and Africa supply 

 abundant examples of the great variations 

 brought about in character, institutions and 

 ideas through the mixture of stocks. Our own 

 race is another conspicuous example ; and our 

 language is a " variation " issuing from the 

 marriage of a Low German speech with one of 

 the children of Latin. 



Apart altogether from the production of a 

 " mixed race," there may be an intermingling 

 of ideas and customs. Here we come upon the 

 differences between organic and superorganic 

 evolution. Human beings are not dependent 

 on heredity alone. They may unconsciously 

 or consciously imitate one another. At the 



