88 DARWINISM AND THE PROBLEMS OF LIFE 



But why does the female sex show resistance at all 

 to love, which ought to be urged with all its force by 

 Nature as the great maintainer of life ? The desire for 

 love is so irresistibly implanted in every living thing 

 that a curb is absolutely necessary. It will be easily 

 understood that too frequent caresses on the part of the 

 male will not serve their purpose, namely to create 

 progeny, but will enfeeble the female, and so be 

 dangerous to the offspring. Hence Nature has raised a 

 barrier to the onrush of the male sex, and this is the 

 coyness of the female. When there is a conflict of the 

 two powerful instincts, coyness and desire, we describe 

 the female as " coquetting." 



The male has to overcome the coyness of the female, 

 and for this the colours, perfume, dance, and song are 

 useful to him ; by the improvement of one or other of 

 these features a male will be able to ensnare the female 

 more quickly than his less brilliant fellows. Among the 

 variations that appeared in the male there were some 

 that chanced to stimulate the love of the female. In 

 this sense the " choice on the part of the female" can be 

 be better understood, yet it is not an explanation. It 

 remains a mystery why just this one among many 

 variations should affect the female — should affect all 

 females, in fact. Further, we do not see how it could 

 happen that the character in question should be 

 developed steadily in a particular direction by the 

 female's choice. Is it not just as if the female had 

 before its mind from the first the image of the complete 

 male ornamentation, so that, when the first traces 

 appeared, she helped it along, and only looked to 



