558 THE DESCENT OF MAN. 



from his half-human male ancestors. These characters would, 

 however, have been preserved or even augmented during the long 

 ages of man's savagery, by the success of the strongest and boldest 

 men, both in the general struggle for life and in their contests 

 for wives; a success which would have ensured their leaving a 

 more numerous progeny than their less favored brethren. It is 

 not probable that the greater strength of man was primarily ac- 

 quired through the inherited effects of his having worked harder 

 than woman for his own subsistence and that of his family; for the 

 women in all barbarous nations are compelled to work at least 

 as hard as the men. With civilized people the arbitrament of 

 battle for the possession of the women has long ceased; on the 

 other hand, the men, as a general rule, have to work harder than 

 the women for their joint subsistence, and thus their greater 

 strength will have been kept up. 



Difference in the Mental Poioers of the two Sexes. — With respect 

 to differences of this nature between man and woman, it is prob- 

 able that sexual selection has played a highly important part. I 

 am aware that some writers doubt whether there is any such in- 

 herent difference; but this is at least probable from the analogy of 

 the lower animals which present other secondary sexual charac- 

 ters. No one disputes that the bull differs in disposition from the 

 cow, the wild-boar from the sow, the stallion from the mare, and, 

 as is well known to the keepers of menageries, the males of the 

 larger apes from the females. Woman seems to differ from man 

 in mental disposition, chiefly in her greater tenderness and less 

 selfishness; and this holds good even with savages, as shown by a 

 well-known passage in Mungo Park's Travels, and by statements 

 made by many other travelers. Woman, owing to her maternal 

 instincts, displays these qualities towards her infants in an emi- 

 nent degree; therefore it is likely that she would often extend 

 them towards her fellow-creatures. Man is the rival of other men; 

 he delights in competition, and this leads to ambition which passes 

 too easily into selfishness. These latter qualities seem to be his 

 natural and unfortunate birthright. It is generally admitted that 

 with woman the powers of intuition, of rapid perception, and per- 

 haps of imitation, are more strongly marked than in man; but 

 some, at least, of these faculties are characteristic of the lower 

 races, and therefore of a past and lower state of civilization. 



The chief distinction in the intellectul powers of the two sexes 

 is shown by man's attaining to a higher eminence, in whatever he 

 takes up, than can woman — whether requiring deep thought, rea- 

 son, or imagination, or merely the use of the senses and hands. 

 If two lists were made of the most eminent men and women in 

 poetry, painting, sculpture, music (inclusive both of composition 

 and performance), history, science, and philosophy, with half-a- 



