and in their contests for wives; a success which would have ensured
their leaving a more numerous progeny than their less favoured
brethren. It is not probable that the greater strength of man was
primarily acquired through the inherited effects of his having worked
harder than woman for his own subsistence and that of his family; 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
joint 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 highly important part. I am
aware that some writers doubt whether there is any such inherent
difference; but this is at least probable from the analogy of the lower
animals which present other secondary sexual characters. No one
disputes 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 tenderness 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 would
often extend them towards her fellow-creatures. Man is the rival of
other men; he delights in competition, and this leads to ambition which
passes too easily into selfishness. These latter qualities seem to be
his natural and unfortunate birthright. It is generally 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
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 s attaining to a higher eminence, in whatever he takes up,
than can woman whether requiring deep thought, reason, or imagination,
586