31 8 THE ASCENT OF MAN 



varies; size, colour, and a multitude of more or less 

 striking secondary sexual characteristics separate 

 the one from the other. Besides this, and more im- 

 portant than all, the cycle of a year's life is never 

 the same for the male as for the female ; they are 

 destined from the beginning to pursue different 

 paths, to live for different ends. 



Now what does all this mean ? To say that 

 the sex-distinction is necessary to sustain the exist- 

 ence of life in the world is no answer, since it is 

 at least possible that life could have been kept 

 up without it. From the facts of Parthenogenesis, 

 illustrated in bees and termites, it is now certain 

 that Reproduction can be effected without fertiliza- 

 tion ; and the circumstance that fertilization is 

 nevertheless the rule, proves this method of Re- 

 production, though not a necessity, to be in some 

 way beneficial to life. It is important to notice 

 this absence of necessity for sex having been 

 created — the absence of any known necessity — 

 from the merely physiological standpoint. Is it 

 inconceivable that Nature should sometimes do 

 things with an ulterior object, an ethical one, for 

 instance? To no one with any acquaintance with 

 Nature's ways will it be possible to conceive of 

 such a purpose as the sole purpose. In these early 

 days when sex was instituted it was a physical 



