152 CHARLES DARWIN 



mate fate, though it is now at a discount ; ' and in the 

 preface to the second edition of the ' Descent of Man/ 

 he remarks acutely, ' I have been struck with the like- 

 ness of many of the half-favourable criticisms on sexual 

 selection with those which appeared at first on natural 

 selection ; such as that it would explain some few details, 

 but certainly was not applicable to the extent to which 

 I have employed it. My conviction of the power of 

 sexual selection remains unshaken. . . . When natural- 

 ists have become familiar with the idea, it will, as I 

 believe, be much more largely accepted; and it has 

 already been fully and favourably received by several 

 capable judges.' 



In spite of the still continued demurrer of not a few 

 among the leading evolutionists, it is probable, I think, 

 that Darwin's prophecy on this matter will yet be justi- 

 fied by the verdict of time. For the opposition to the 

 doctrine of sexual selection proceeds almost invariably, 

 as it seems to me, from those persons who still desire 

 to erect an efficient barrier of one sort or another 

 between the human and animal worlds ; while on the 

 contrary the theory in question is almost if not quite 

 universally accepted by just those rigorously evolutionary 

 biologists who are freest from preconceptions or special 

 a priori teleological objections of any kind whatever. 

 The half of the doctrine which deals with the law of 

 battle, indeed, can hardly be doubted by any competent 

 naturalist ; the other half, which deals with the supposed 

 aesthetic preferences of the females, is, no doubt, dis- 

 tasteful to certain thinkers because it seems to imply 

 the existence in the lower animals of a sense of beauty 

 which many among us are not even now prepared gene- 



