126 THE MEANING OF EVOLUTION 
within the hour. Superfluous bachelors, among the 
honey bees, when the bridal season has passed, are 
driven from the hive to die of starvation. 
An animal need not always be successful himself, 
but it is more essential that he hand down his success- 
ful traits to those who come after him. It is more 
important for the future generation that an animal 
should have had it in him to do great things, though 
he himself really have never done them, than that he 
should have learned to do great things on a meager 
original endowment. Not what an animal accom- 
plishes is important to his children, but what he has 
it in him to accomplish. Accordingly Nature is full of 
devices by which those who have proved their original 
endowment by winning out in the struggle shall hand 
on this endowment to a subsequent generation. In 
other words, Nature is anxious that they may suc- 
cessfully mate. Here we are again on distinctly de- 
batable ground. Darwin himself believed thoroughly 
in what he called sexual selection. It is the essence 
of this idea that the males and females have grown 
unlike, more technically have developed secondary sex- 
ual characters, through the choice of the mating pair. 
It would usually be the more serious loss if accident 
should come to the female, for she may carry fertil- 
ized eggs for some time. Hence, if both sexes may 
not become attractive, it is usually the male that de- 
