Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 6.djvu/308

294 side of natural history. Should some additional deductions and interpretations be brought out, it is hoped that they will not be found either forced or imaginary.

In order to a clear understanding of the line of reasoning employed, we must distinguish between the terms "natural selection" and "sexual selection," as used by Darwin. The traits resulting from these two processes are under a different law of heredity—those arising through natural selection being transmitted alike to the young of both sexes, while the results of sexual selection are inherited mainly by the adults of the corresponding sex. It will be seen that these are important laws, and that they furnish a key to our inquiry into the conditions and influences which have resulted in the woman of to-day. Under the operation of this second law (quoting from the "Descent of Man"), "it is the male which, with rare exceptions, has been chiefly modified—the female remaining more like the young of her own species, and more like the other members of the same group. The cause of this seems to lie in the males of almost all animals having stronger passions than the females. Hence it is that the males fight together, and sedulously display their charms before the females; and those which are victorious transmit their superiority to their male offspring." The question naturally arises, How have the males of the lower animals acquired this greater strength of passion? Says Darwin: "It would be no advantage, and some loss of power, if both sexes were mutually to search for each other; but why should the male almost always be the seeker?" Reasoning from the lower forms of life, he points out the fact that the ovules, developed in the female organs of plants, must be nourished for a time after fertilization; hence the pollen is necessarily brought to them—being conveyed to the stigma by insects, by winds, or by the spontaneous movements of the stamens themselves, upon which the pollen grows. "With lowly-organized animals permanently affixed to the same spot, and having their sexes separate, the male element is invariably brought to the female; and we can see the reason; for the ova, even if detached before being fertilized, and not requiring subsequent nourishment or protection, would be, from their larger relative size, less easily transported than the male element.... In case of animals having little power of locomotion, the fertilizing element must be trusted to the risk of at least a short transit through the waters of the sea. It, would, therefore be a great advantage to such animals, as their organization became perfected, if the males, when ready to emit the fertilizing element, were to acquire the habit of approaching the female. The males of various lowly-organized animals having thus aboriginally acquired the habit of seeking the females, the same habit would naturally be transmitted to their more highly-developed male descendants; and, in order that they should become efficient seekers, they would have to be endowed with strong passions. The acquirement of such passions would naturally