determining at what precise period in the development of the
individual, from the first trace of a minute germinal vesicle, man
becomes an immortal being; and there is no greater cause for anxiety
because the period cannot possibly be determined in the gradually
ascending organic scale. (2. The Rev. J.A. Picton gives a discussion to
this effect in his New Theories and the Old Faith, 1870.)
I am aware that the conclusions arrived at in this work will be
denounced by some as highly irreligious; but he who denounces them is
bound to shew why it is more irreligious to explain the origin of man
as a distinct species by descent from some lower form, through the laws
of variation and natural selection, than to explain the birth of the
individual through the laws of ordinary reproduction. The birth both of
the species and of the individual are equally parts of that grand
sequence of events, which our minds refuse to accept as the result of
blind chance. The understanding revolts at such a conclusion, whether
or not we are able to believe that every slight variation of
structure, the union of each pair in marriage, the dissemination of
each seed, and other such events, have all been ordained for some
special purpose.
Sexual selection has been treated at great length in this work; for, as
I have attempted to shew, it has played an important part in the
history of the organic world. I am aware that much remains doubtful,
but I have endeavoured to give a fair view of the whole case. In the
lower divisions of the animal kingdom, sexual selection seems to have
done nothing: such animals are often affixed for life to the same spot,
or have the sexes combined in the same individual, or what is still
more important, their perceptive and intellectual faculties are not
sufficiently advanced to allow of the feelings of love and jealousy, or
of the exertion of choice. When, however, we come to the Arthropoda and
Vertebrata, even to the lowest classes in these two great Sub-Kingdoms,
sexual selection has effected much.
In the several great classes of the animal kingdom, in mammals, birds,
reptiles, fishes, insects, and even crustaceans, the differences
between the sexes follow nearly the same rules. The males are almost
always the wooers; and they alone are armed with special weapons for
fighting with their rivals. They are generally stronger and larger than
the females, and are endowed with the requisite qualities of courage
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