C!iiap. XIX. MENTAL POWEES OF MAN AND WOMAN. 327 
these faculties are characteristic of the lower races, and 
therefore of a past and lower state of civilisation. 
The chief distinction in the intellectual powers of 
the two sexes is shewn by man attaining to a higher 
eminence, in whatever he takes up, than woman can 
nttain — whether requiring deep thought, reason, or 
imagination, or merely the use of the senses and 
hands. If two lists were made of the most eminent 
men and women in poetry, painting, sculpture, music, 
— comprising composition and performance, history, 
science, and philosophy, with half-a-dozen names under 
‘each subject, the two lists would not bear comparison. 
We may also infer, from the law of the deviation of 
averages, so well illustrated by Mr. Galton, in his 
work on ^ Hereditary Genius,’ that if men are capable 
■of decided eminence over women in many subjects, the 
-average standard of mental power in man must be 
above that of woman. 
The half-human male progenitors of man, and men 
in a savage state, have struggled together during many 
generations for the possession of the females. But mere 
bodily strength and size would do little for victory, 
unless associated with courage, perseverance, and deter- 
mined enei’gy. With social animals, the young males 
have to pass through many a contest before they win a 
female, and the older males have to retain their females 
by renewed battles. They have, also, in the case of 
man, to defend their females, as well as their young, 
from enemies of all kinds, and to hunt for their joint 
subsistence. But to avoid enemies, or to attack them 
with success, to capture wild animals, and to invent 
and fashion weapons, requires the aid of the higher 
mental faculties, namely, observation, reason, inven- 
tion, or imagination. These various faculties will thus 
have been continually put to the test, and selected 
