266 THE FEELINGS AND EMOTIONS 
conditions under which the bow is bent to the full. But they 
also afford the conditions of the apparent act of choice. This 
takes the place, on the perceptual plane of mental development, 
of that deliberation which precedes the higher act of choice on 
the ideational plane. For psychology, as well as for biology, 
then, Dr. Groos’s suggestion is a welcome and helpful one. 
Both upholders of sexual selection and critics of that hypo- 
thesis, have been apt to regard the choice of a mate in animals 
from too anthropomorphic a point of view—to look upon it 
as the outcome of rational deliberation, of weighing in the 
esthetic balance the relative attractiveness of this suitor and 
of that, and of reaching a definite conclusion that the one is to 
be accepted because he behaves or is adorned in such and such 
a way, while the other is to be rejected because he falls below 
all reasonable standards of requirement. The choice exercised - 
by the female, if so we term it, is far simpler and more naive. 
Indeed, Professor Groos goes so far as to say that on his 
hypothesis the element of choice is altogether abolished. “ It 
is the instinctive coyness of the female,” he says,* “that 
necessitates all the arts of courtship, and the probability is that 
seldom or never does the female exert any choice. She is not 
awarder of the prize, but rather a hunted creature. So, just 
as the beast of prey has special instincts for finding his prey, 
the ardent male must have special instincts for subduing 
female reluctance. According to this theory, there is choice 
only in the sense that the hare finally succumbs to the best 
hound, which is as much as to say that the phenomena of 
courtship are referred at once to natural selection.” He 
reaches this conclusion, however, by gradual stages. He first 
urges t that “it would be absurd to affirm that all bird songs 
originate in a conscious esthetic and critical act of judgment 
on the part of the female. A conscious choice either of the 
most beautiful or the loudest singer is certainly not the rule, 
and probably never occurs at all. But,” he adds, “is it not 
still a choice, though unconscious, when the female turns to 
the singer whose voice, whether from strength or modulation, 
* Op. cit., pref., p. xxii. t Op. ctt., p. 240. 
