326 
SEXUAL iselectiok: max. 
Part II. 
for the women in all barbarous nations are compelled 
to work at least as hard as the men. With civilised 
people the arbitrament of battle for the possession of 
the women has long ceased ; on the other hand, the men, 
as a general rule, have to work harder than the women 
for their mutual subsistence ; and thus their greater 
strength will have been kept up. 
Difference in the Mental Powers of the two Sexes . — 
With respect to differences of this nature between man 
and woman, it is probable that sexual selection has 
played a very important part. I am aware that some 
writers doubt wliether there is any inherent difference ; 
but this is at least probable from the analogy of the 
lower animals which present other secondary sexual 
characters. No one will dispute that the bull differs 
in disposition from the cow, the wild-boar from the 
sow, the stallion from the mare, and, as is well known 
to the keepers of menageries, the males of the larger 
apes from the females. Woman seems to differ from 
man in mental disposition, chiefly in her greater tender- 
ness and less selfishness ; and this holds good even 
with savages, as shewn by a well-known passage in 
Mungo Park’s Travels, and by statements made by 
many other travellers. Woman, owing to her maternal 
instincts, displays these qualities towards her infants 
in an eminent degree ; therefore it is likely that she 
should often extend them towards her fellow-creatures. 
Man is the rival of other men ; he delights in com- 
petition, and this leads to ambition which passes too 
easily into selfishness. These latter qualities seem to 
be his natural and unfortunate birthright. It is gene- 
rally admitted that with woman the powers of intuition, 
of rapid perception, and perhaps of imitation, are more 
strongly marked than in man ; but some, at least, of 
