Page:Carroll Lane Fenton - Darwin and the Theory of Evolution.djvu/40

 Rh question, to examine the bases for their beliefs, and perhaps even to give some of them up. Of course, one might give up a great many beliefs and still be a Christian, a Mohammedan, or what not, but he could not be orthodox. And it was orthodoxy upon which the preachers depended for their power—or, in many cases, for their jobs.

But the most emphasized, if not the most important, feature of the Descent of Man was the section dealing with Darwin’s hypothesis of sexual selection. This hypothesis held that animals of one sex held a definite preference for certain qualities in the opposite sex. Naturally, under this supposition, the predominant number of matings would be with those individuals possessing the favored characteristics, so that in time those qualities would become established. Thus among birds the more brilliant males, or those with superior voices, were the more successful in courtship, and so left more descendants than did the unfavored ones. Eventually the advantageous coloration would be established as the character of the species, or of a new species.

This hypothesis (it hardly deserves to be called a theory) became extremely popular with the followers of Darwin. It seemed to explain a great number of things, and required only a small acquaintance with the subject and an ordinary amount of common sense to manipuate. Evolutionists actually hunted for multiple examples of favorable characters; the most insignificant features of appearance or structure were assumed to be aids in the struggle for existence. From the arguments of these