160 GENERAL EVOLUTION. 



characters ; that is, increase of strength, powers of support and 

 protection, size and beauty. In order to maintain that the mas- 

 culine character coincides with that of the undeveloped woman, 

 it would be necessary to show that the latter during her infancy 

 possesses the male characters predominating — that is, unimpressi- 

 bility, judgment, physical courage, and the like. 



If we look at the second class of female characters — nameh', 

 those which are imperfectly developed or absent in men, and in 

 respect to which man may be called undeveloped woman — we 

 note three prominent points : facility in language, tact or finesse, 

 and the love of children. The first two appear to me to be alto- 

 gether developed results of ^^impressibility," already considered 

 as an indication of immaturity. Imagination is also a quality of 

 impressibility, and, associated with finesse, is apt to degenerate 

 into duplicity and untruthfulness — a i^eculiarity more natural to 

 women than men. 



The third quality is different. It generally appears at a very 

 early period of life. Who does not know how soon the little girl 

 selects the doll, and the boy the toy-horse or machine ? Here 

 man truly never gets beyond undeveloped woman. Nevertheless, 

 ^^impressibility" seems to have a great deal to do with this 

 quality also. 



Thus the metaphysical relation of the sexes would appear to 

 be one of inexact parallelism, as defined in Section I. That the 

 physical relation is a remote one of the same kind, several charac- 

 ters seem to point out. The case of the vocal organs will suffice. 

 Their structure is identical in both sexes in early youth, and botii 

 produce nearly similar sounds. They remain in this condition in 

 the woman, while they undergo a metamorjohosis and change both 

 in structure and vocal power in the man. In the same way, in 

 many of the lower creation, the females possess a majority of em- 

 bryonic features, though not invariably. A common example is 

 to be found in the plumage of birds, where the females and young 

 males are often undistinguishable.* But there are a few points in 



* Meehan states that the upper limbs and stronc^ laterals in Coniferge and other 

 trees produce female flowers and cones, and the lower and more interior branches 

 the male flowers. He calls the former condition one of greater " vigor," and the 

 latter one of *' weakness," and argues that the vigorous condition of growth pro- 

 duces females, and the weaker males. What he points out, however, is in harmony 

 with the position here maintained — namely, that the female characters include more 

 of those which are embryonic in the males than the male characters include of those 



