MENTAL POWERS OF MAN AND WOMAN. 559 



dozen names under each subject, the two lists would not bear com- 

 parison. We may also infer, from the law of the deviation from 

 averages, so well illustrated by Mr. Galton, in his work on 'Hered- 

 itary genius,' that if men are capable of a decided pre-eminence 

 over women In many subjects, the average of mental power in 

 man must be above that of woman. 



Amongst the half-human progenitors of man, and amongst sav- 

 ages, there have been struggles between the males during many 

 generations for the possession of the females. But mere bodily 

 strength and size would do little for victory, unless associated 

 with courage, perseverance, and determined energy. With social 

 animals, the young males have to pass through many a contest be- 

 fore they win a female, and the older males have to retain their fe- 

 males by renewed battles. They have, also, in the case of man- 

 kind, to defend their females, as well as their young, from enemies 

 of all kinds, and to hunt for their joint subsistence. But to avoid 

 enemies or to attack them with success, to capture wild animals, 

 and to fashion weapons, requires the aid of the higher mental 

 faculties, namely, observation, reason. Invention, or imaglnatiou. 

 These various faculties will thus have been continually put to the 

 test and selected during manhood; they will, moreover, have been 

 strengthened by use during this same period of life. Conse- 

 quently, In accordance with the principle often alluded to, we 

 might expect that they would at least tend to be transmitted 

 chiefly to the male offspring at the corresponding period of man- 

 hood. 



Now, when two men are put into competition, or a man with a 

 woman, both possessed of every mental quality in equal perfec- 

 tion, save that one has higher energy, perseverance, and courage, 

 the latter will generally become more eminent in every pursuit, 

 and will gain the ascendancy.^ He may be said to possess 

 genius — for genius has been declared by a great authority to be 

 patience; and patience, in this sense, means unflinching, un- 

 daunted perseverance. But this view of genius is perhaps de- 

 ficient; for without the higher powers of the imagination and 

 reason, no eminent success can be gained in many subjects. These 

 latter faculties, as well as the former, will have been developed In 

 man, partly through sexual selection, — ^that is, through the contest 

 of rival males, and partly through natural selection, — -that is, 

 from success in the general struggle for life; and as In both cases 

 the struggle will have been during maturity, the characters gained 

 will have been transmitted more fully to the male than to the fe- 



2* J. Stuart Mill remarks ('The Subjection of Women,' 1869, p. 122), 

 "The thing's in which man most excels woman are those which require 

 "most plodding, and long hammering at .single thoughts." What is 

 thi.? but energy and persevfrance? 



