laid upon the choice of fathers rather than of
mothers. Not so long ago, the scion of a noble race must marry, not at
all necessarily the daughter of another noble race, but rather any young
healthy woman who promised to be able to bear children easily and suckle
them long. But directly we observe, under the microscope, the facts of
development, we discover that each parent contributes an exactly equal
share to the making of the new individual, and all the ancient and
modern ideas of the superior value of well-selected fatherhood fall to
the ground. Woman is indeed half the race. In virtue of expectant
motherhood and her ante-natal nurture of us all, she might well claim
to be more, but she is half at least.

And thus it matters for the future at least as much how the mothers are
chosen as how the fathers are. This remains true, notwithstanding that
the differences between men, commending them for selection or rejection,
seem so much more conspicuous and important than in the case of women.

For, in the first place, the differences between women are much greater
than appear when, for instance, we read history as history is at present
understood, or when we observe and compare the world and his wife.
Uniformity or comparative uniformity of environment is a factor of
obvious importance in tending to repress the natural differences between
women. Reverse the occupations and surroundings of the sexes, and it
might be found that men were "much of a muchness," and women various and
individualized, to a surprising extent.

But, even allowing for this, it is difficult to question that men as
individuals do differ, for good and for evil, more than women as
individuals. Such a malady as haemophilia, for instance, sharply
distinguishes a certain number of men from the rest of their sex,
whereas women, not subject to the disease, are not thus distinguished,
as individuals.

But the very case here cited serves to illustrate the fallacy of
studying the individual as an individual only, and teaches that there is
a second reason why the selection of women for motherhood is more
important than is so commonly supposed. In the matter of, for instance,
haemophilia, men appear sharply contrasted among themselves and women all
similar. Yet the truth is that men and women differ equally in this very
respect. Women do not suffer from haemophilia, but they convey it. Just
as definitely as one man is haemophilic and another is not, so one wo