PSYCHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS 113 



must be dependent on qualitative or quantitative 

 structural conditions. 



Since the differentiation of sex is a process of evolu- Differentia- 

 tion destined to meet the complexities of reproduction evolutionary 1 

 which arise in the life-histories of the higher animals, P r °c ess - 

 we must look upon all the functions of the body, the 

 mental no less than the physical, as harnessed to this 

 purpose, which has reached the highest development in 

 Man. In the lower animals sexual selection and maternal 

 instincts are dependent, no doubt, on sensory stimuli, 

 probably without the interference of the intellectual 

 faculties of altruism and choice, which form additional 

 factors in the equipment of the human female. 



From a biological standpoint, according to the state- 

 ments of Ray Lankester and others, to which reference 

 has already been made, the individual exists merely to 

 harbour the reproductive cells. Less crudely we may say 

 the raison d'etre of all existence is the furtherance of the 

 universal scheme of evolution. Retrogressions there may 

 be, it is certain, but the total trend is towards the evo- 

 lution of higher forms of life, and therefore of higher and 

 more intricate functions. It is only to be expected, then, 

 that all the functions of every individual subserve, how- 

 ever obscurely, this one eternal purpose. Indeed, it might 

 be urged that in serving the individual the so-called 

 ordinary functions are indirectly assuring the welfare 

 of the reproductive functions. It is not for us, therefore, 

 who make a study of the processes of reproduction, to 

 allow the possibility of any divergence of the mental 

 functions from the path indicated. Still less is it for 

 others with no knowledge of biology to take the mind 

 from the body and enshrine it as a thing entirely apart — 

 a parasitic function living on, but independent of the 

 body. 



It would, of course, be absurd to deduce from these individua- 

 remarks, as some may be inclined to do, the belief that tion : a ? d 



, , . , . 1.1 i -, evolution. 



the mind is centred on the actual reproductive functions 

 alone, or is entirely dependent thereon. Beneath the 

 wide issue of evolution lie many incorporated but 



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