hest as well as in the lowest
members of the Vertebrate series, are derived from those of the common
progenitor of the whole group. It thus becomes intelligible that the
brain and mental faculties should be capable under similar conditions of
nearly the same course of development, and consequently of performing
nearly the same functions.

The reader who has taken the trouble to go through the several chapters
devoted to sexual selection will be able to judge how far the
conclusions at which I have arrived are supported by sufficient
evidence. If he accepts these conclusions he may, I think, safely extend
them to mankind; but it would be superfluous here to repeat what I have
so lately said on the manner in which sexual selection apparently has
acted on man, both on the male and female side, causing the two sexes of
man to differ in body and mind, and the several races to differ from
each other in various characters, as well as from their ancient and
lowly organized progenitors.

He who admits the principle of sexual selection will be led to the
remarkable conclusion that the cerebral system not only regulates most
of the existing functions of the body, but has indirectly influenced the
progressive development of various bodily structures and of certain
mental qualities. Courage, pugnacity, perseverance, strength and size of
body, weapons of all kinds, musical organs, both vocal and instrumental,
bright colours, stripes and marks, and ornamental appendages, have all
been indirectly gained by the one sex or the other, through the
influence of love and jealousy, through the appreciation of the
beautiful in sound, colour or form, and through the exertion of a
choice; and those powers of the mind manifestly depend on the
development of the cerebral system.

Man scans with scrupulous care the character and pedigree of his horses,
cattle and dogs before he matches them; but when he comes to his own
marriage he rarely, or never takes any such care. He is impelled by
nearly the same motives as the lower animals when left to their own free
choice, though he is in so far superior to them that he highly values
mental charms and virtues. On the other hand he is strongly attracted
by mere wealth or rank. Yet he might by selection do something not only
for the bodily constitution and frame of his offspring, but for their
intellectual and moral qualities. Both sexes ought to refrain from
marriage if they are in any marked degree inf