comparisons of races made to determine the amounts and characters of the
higher feelings to which the relation of the sexes gives rise. The
lowest varieties of mankind have but small endowments of these feelings.
Among varieties of higher types, such as the Malayo-Polynesians, these
feelings seem considerably developed: the Dyaks, for instance, sometimes
display them in great strength. Speaking generally, they appear to
become stronger with the advance of civilization. Several subordinate
inquiries may be named. (_a_) How far is development of the sexual
sentiment dependent upon intellectual advance--upon growth of
imaginative power? (_b_) How far is it related to emotional advance; and
especially to evolution of those emotions which originate from sympathy?
What are its relations to polyandry and polygyny? (_c_) Does it not
tend towards, and is it not fostered by, monogamy? (_d_) What connexion
has it with maintenance of the family bond, and the consequent better
rearing of children?

III.--Under the third head, to which we may now pass come the more
special traits of the different races.

1. _Imitativeness._--One of the characteristics in which the lower types
of men show us a smaller departure from reflex action than do the higher
types, is their strong tendency to mimic the motions and sounds made by
others--an almost involuntary habit which travellers find it difficult
to check. This meaningless repetition, which seems to imply that the
idea of an observed action cannot be framed in the mind of the observer
without tending forthwith to discharge itself in the action conceived
(and every ideal action is a nascent form of the consciousness
accompanying performance of such action), evidently diverges but little
from the automatic; and decrease of it is to be expected along with
increase of self-regulating power. This trait of automatic mimicry is
evidently allied with that less automatic mimicry which shows itself in
greater persistence of customs. For customs adopted by each generation
from the last without thought or inquiry, imply a tendency to imitate
which overmasters critical and sceptical tendencies: so maintaining
habits for which no reasons can be given. The decrease of this
irrational mimicry, strongest in the lowest savage and feeblest in the
highest of the civilized, should be studied along with the successively
higher stages of social life, as being at once an aid and a hindrance to
civilization: an