SEXUAL SELECTION 1!^ RELATION TO MAN 727 



X Now, when two men are +111 into competition, or a man 

 1 with a woman, both possessed of every mental quality in 

 equal perfection, save that one has higher energy, perse- 

 I verance, and courage, the latter will generally become more 

 eminent in every pursuit, and will gain the asipendency.**^ 

 He may be said to possess genius — for genius has been de-^ 

 clared by a great a uthority to bepatience; and patience, 

 in this sense, meana-jgnbinchingT^ ndaunted perseverance . ? 

 ^ut this view of genius is perhaps deficient; for without 

 / the Trjghftr poyrpra nf t.Ti g imagination and reason^ no emi- 

 V^ent 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 selec- 

 tion — ^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 female offspring. It 

 accords in a striking manner with this view of the modifi- 

 cation and reinforcement of many of our mental faculties 

 by sexual selection, that, first, they notoriously undergo 

 a considerable change at puberty," and, secondly, that 

 eunuchs remain throughout life inferior in these same 

 qualities. Thus man has ultimately become superior to 

 woman. It is, indeed, fortunate that tlie law of the equal 

 transmission of characters to both sexes prevails with mam- 

 mals; otherwise it is probable that man would have become 

 as superior in mental endowment to woman, as the peacock 

 is in ornamental plumage to the peahen. 



It must be borne in mind that the tendency in characters 

 acquired by either sex late in life, to be transmitted to the 

 same sex at the same age, and of early acquired characters 



^ J. Stuart Mm remarks ("The Subjection of 'Women," 3869, p. 122), "The 

 things in which man most excels woman are those which require most plodding 

 and long hammering at single thoughts." Wliat is this but energy and per> 

 severance ? 



" Maudsley, "Mind and Body," p. 31. 



