192 DIVERSIONS OF A NATURALIST 



Almost universally its sequel, the production of offspring 

 has been regarded as the dominant instinct in the higher 

 animals, but this view has no foundation in fact. Desire, 

 for the sake of the pleasure which its gratification affords, 

 and not its consequences, is the only hold on life which 

 any race possesses. And this is true both in the case 

 of man himself and of the beasts that perish. Those 

 whose business it is, for one reason or another, to study 

 these emotions, know well that " mate-hunger " may be 

 as ravenous as food-hunger, and that, with some excep- 

 tions, it is immensely more insistent in the males than 

 in the females. But for this appetite, reproduction in 

 many species could not take place, for the sexes often 

 live far apart, and mates are only to be won after 

 desperate conflict with powerful rivals no less inflamed. 

 It is idle to speak of an equality between the sexes in 

 this matter, either in regard to animals or in the human 

 race. The male is dominated by the desire to gratify the 

 sexual appetite ; in the female this is modified by the 

 stimulation of other instincts concerned with the care of 

 offspring. Amorousness is the underlying factor which 

 has shaped and is sustaining human society, and is no 

 less powerful among the lower animals. Much that is 

 considered contrary to human nature, and either out- 

 rageous or ridiculous, would be understood and wisely 

 dealt with if knowledge of nature, including man's nature, 

 were cultivated, and took the place of vain assertions as to 

 " what should be," accompanied by ignorance of" what is." 



An excellent sample of the more violent method of 

 " courtship by seizure " is found in the proceedings of the 

 northern fur-seal as described by Mr. Pycraft. The old 

 bulls, after spending the greater part of the year in the 

 open sea, arrive at the rocks which serve as the breeding 

 grounds a full month before the cows arrive. The 



