126 THE MEANING OF EVOLUTION 



within the hour. Superfluous bachelors, among the 

 honey bees, when the bridal season has passed, are 

 driven from the hive to die of starvation. 



An animal need not always be successful himself, 

 but it is more essential that he hand down his success- 

 ful traits to those who come after him. It is more 

 important for the future generation that an animal 

 should have had it in him to do great things, though 

 he himself really have never done them, than that he 

 should have learned to do great things on a meager 

 original endowment. Not what an animal accom- 

 plishes is important to his children, but what he has 

 it in him to accomplish. Accordingly Nature is full of 

 devices by which those who have proved their original 

 endowment by winning out in the struggle shall hand 

 on this endowment to a subsequent generation. In 

 other words, Nature is anxious that they may suc- 

 cessfully mate. Here we are again on distinctly de- 

 batable ground. Darwin himself believed thoroughly 

 in what he called sexual selection. It is the essence 

 of this idea that the males and females have grown 

 unlike, more technically have developed secondary sex- 

 ual characters, through the choice of the mating pair. 

 It would usually be the more serious loss if accident 

 should come to the female, for she may carry fertil- 

 ized eggs for some time. Hence, if both sexes may 

 not become attractive, it is usually the male that de- 



