FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION 41 



it is evident that the ultimate consequences will be 

 far wider than the mere consideration of the imme- 

 diate criterion would suggest, for sexual attractive- 

 ness may be correlated — to use the technical term — 

 with various other characters, such as strength and 

 intelligence ; which thus tend to be perpetuated. 



This conscious and, so to speak, aesthetic aspect 

 of sexual selection may first be briefly considered, 

 ere we ask whether sexual selection may not work 

 in other ways as well. It is evident, of course, that 

 this mode of sexual selection can act only where 

 there is some measure of esthetic perception. The 

 animal that has but a feeble colour-sense, and likes 

 no one colour better than another, is as likely to 

 choose a sober- as a gay-suited fellow. Therefore 

 it may be argued that this form of sexual selection 

 is of relatively recent development ; and, indeed, 

 must tend to increase in importance as the sesthetic 

 faculty comes to be more widely disseminated and 

 more cogent in its demands. 



In human society of the present day, sexual 

 selection is perhaps more especially exercised on the 

 part of the male. In most civilised communities of 

 our time, there are, for instance, more women than 

 men, and, given the observance of monogamy, it is 

 self-evident that the women whom men regard as 

 preferable will, on the average, be preferred. But 

 even though marriage is usually " more important " 

 for a woman than a man in these days, there is, of 

 course, a measure of sexual selection exercised by 

 women. Here and there is a man who has never 

 been able to find a woman who will " take pity on 

 him"; and his particular type therefore tends, in 



