nt of life. The importance of the result to
be gained explains the diverse and elaborate phenomena of courtship.
The higher we ascend in the animal kingdom the stronger does the
sex-appetite become: it vibrates in the nerve-centres, giving rise to
violent emotions which intensify all the physical and psychic
activities. Love is the great creative force. It awakens impressions
and desires in the individual, giving rise to what may be called
"experiments in creative self-expression," to the energy of which we
owe the varied and marvellous phenomena in animal life.

A further cause arising from the development of love is certainly of
not less importance--it is the beginning of life not wholly
individualistic. It is in the sexual passions we must seek the origins
of all social growth. This is evident. We have seen that sexual union
induces durable association between the female and the male for the
object of rearing the young. Here already we find that truth, which it
is the chief purpose of this book to make plain, that the individual
exists for the race. This is the new and practical morality of the
biological view, which regards the individual as primarily the host
and servant of the seed of life. And this is really of the greatest
benefit to the individual. From this service to the future arises the
family and the home. The familial instinct, more or less developed,
may be traced far back in the scale of life; and as it gains in
strength it extends from the family into a wider social love, which in
some species results in the forming of societies grouped together for
mutual protection and co-operation in communal activities. A rough
outline of society is thus found established already in the animal
kingdom.

Just as there were many different forms of sexual associations among
our animal ancestors, so we may observe the two chief forms of human
societies, the matriarchate and the patriarchate--or the maternal and
paternal family. It is the former that is the most frequent. This is
what we should expect. The female, the mother, as the natural centre
of the family, the male, her servant, in the procreative act; but
apart from this, we find him most frequently following personal
interests; the female's love for the young is stronger and more
developed than his. I lay stress upon this fact, for it shows how
strongly planted in woman is the maternal instinct. I doubt if any
woman can ever find true expression for her nature