apart from
motherhood. It is in these past histories of life's development that
we may find the key for its purpose and meaning to us.

There is another point of special importance to us in estimating the
true place of woman in society. This early position of the female
proves conclusively (as we shall see more clearly later when we come
to study the primitive human family) the importance of the mother and
her children as the founders of society. Woman, by reason of her more
intimate connection with the children and the home, became the centre
of the social group, while the males, less bound by domestic ties,
were able to wander, but came back to the home, driven by their sexual
needs to return to the female. But without giving more time here to
this question, to which I shall return later, there is a further
consideration, arising from our study of the family habits among the
birds and mammals, that now must claim our attention. Certain
examples I have come across, in particular among birds, have forced
into my mind doubt of a widely-accepted belief. I put forward my
opinion with great diffidence; it is so easy to interpret facts by the
bias of one's own wishes. I know that the cases I have found and
studied are probably few in comparison with those I have missed; but
to me they seem of such importance, by the light they throw on the
whole question of the position of the sexes, that it seems necessary
to bring them forward.

We must go back to the position we left, some time back, of the
differences between the secondary sexual characters of the male and
the female. We have followed the development of the male, under the
action of love's selection, from his first insignificant position in
the reproductive process; we have seen him becoming larger than the
female, strong, jealous and masterful--in fact, a kind of fighting
specialisation, with special weapons of defence for sex-battles. This
is the general condition among mammals. Among birds another set of
secondary character, that may be classed as beauty-tests, are more
frequent. Now two questions must be answered. Can it be proved that
all these acquired developments of strength and of beauty belong
exclusively to the males--that they must be regarded as proof of the
greater tendency to diversity in the male, which has carried him
further in the evolution process than the female? Can it also be
proved that such highly-marked differentiation between the sexes is in