CHAPTER X. 
THE THEORY OF SEXUAL SELECTION, AND 
CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
ALTHOUGH the explanatory value of the Darwinian 
theory of natural selection is, as we have now seen, 
incalculably great, it nevertheless does not mect those 
phenomena of organic nature which perhaps more 
than any other attract the general attention, as well 
as the general admiration, of mankind: I mean all 
that class of phenomena which go to constitute the 
Beautiful. Whatever value beauty as such may have, |” 
it clearly has not a life-preserving value. The gorgeous. 
plumage of a peacock, for instance, is of no advantage 
to the peacock in his struggle for life, and therefore 
cannot be attributed to the agency of natural selection. 
Now this fact of beauty in organic structures is a fact 
of wide generality—almost as wide, indeed, as is the 
fact of their utility. Mr. Darwin, therefore, suggested 
another hypothesis whereby to render a scientific 
explanation of this fact. Just as by his theory of 
natural selection he sought to explain the major fact 
of utility, so did he endeavour to explain the minor 
fact of beauty by a theory of what he termed Sexual | 
Selection. | 
