XIII. 
THE WOMAN OF EVOLUTION AND THE WOMAN 
OF PESSIMISM. 
THE primary function of sex is the production of 
variation. Unlikeness among organisms makes possible 
an increased number. With variety of 
qualities there is room for variety in 
adaptation to the possible conditions of 
life. With single parentage or parthenogenesis the 
young will resemble the parent so exactly that the com- 
petition one with another must be of the closest possible 
kind. In the degree that competition is close it must be 
destructive. With double parentage no organism can 
be a slavish copy of any other. Each creation must in 
the nature of things have twice as many ancestors as 
either parent had, and from these ancestors the mosaic 
of its hereditary character must be made up. 
In the beginning of life, so far as we know, the two 
sexes must have been identical. From the point of view 
of evolution neither can be superior nor prior to the 
other. Each is complementary to the other; the dif- 
ferences which have arisen in the progress of develop- 
: ment being responses to the needs of 
Primal equality qivision of labour. 
of sexes. 
The cells of Protozoa which unite in 
the function of conjugation are apparently alike as to 
sex. Their union serves to modify the hereditary char- 
312 
Primary 
meaning of sex. 
