ision has
been made for its young. The male garden spider may have a long and
dangerous courtship, in which the uncertain temper of his ladylove may
lead her to bite off four or five of his eight legs. But her
ingratitude is not yet complete. He may have barely accomplished his
desperate purpose of fertilizing her eggs at all hazards, when she
ends the process by eating him. The male bumblebee fertilizes the
female in the late summer and then dies. She does not lay her eggs
before the next season. So it happens that no bumblebee ever sees its
own father, and no father bumblebee ever sees his own children. In the
honey bee the male, which has been fortunate enough to fertilize the
queen, pays for his honor by death within the hour. Superfluous
bachelors, among the honey bees, when the bridal season has passed,
are driven from the hive to die of starvation.

An animal need not always be successful himself, but it is more
essential that he hand down his successful traits to those who come
after him. It is more important for the future generation that an
animal should have had it in him to do great things, though he himself
really have never done them, than that he should have learned to do
great things on a meager original endowment. Not what an animal
accomplishes is important to his children, but what he has it in him
to accomplish. Accordingly Nature is full of devices by which those
who have proved their original endowment by winning out in the
struggle shall hand on this endowment to a subsequent generation. In
other words, Nature is anxious that they may successfully mate. Here
we are again on distinctly debatable ground. Darwin himself believed
thoroughly in what he called sexual selection. It is the essence of
this idea that the males and females have grown unlike, more
technically have developed secondary sexual characters, through the
choice of the mating pair. It would usually be the more serious loss
if accident should come to the female, for she may carry fertilized
eggs for some time. Hence, if both sexes may not become attractive, it
is usually the male that develops fine colors, ornamental appendages
or a captivating voice.

An interesting reversal of this process has taken place in civilized
man. His more savage ancestor adorned himself more lavishly than he
permitted his mate to do. With the advance of civilization man has
undertaken to defend his own mate most valorously. The result is it is
safe for