ood qualities. Moreover,
changes in the standards of sexual selection should not be too rapid, as
that results in the permanent celibacy of some excellent but
hyper-critical individuals. The ideal is an advance of standards as
rapidly as will yet keep all the superior persons married. This is
accomplished if all superior individuals marry as well as possible, yet
with advancing years gradually reduce the standard so that celibacy may
not result.

Having decided that there is room for improvement in the standards of
sexual selection, and that such improvement is psychologically feasible,
we come to point (c): in what particular ways is this improvement
needed? Any discussion of this large subject must necessarily be only
suggestive, not exhaustive.

If sexual selection is to be taken seriously, it is imperative that
there be some improvement in the general attitude of public sentiment
toward love itself. It is difficult for the student to acquire sound
knowledge[98] of the normal manifestations of love: the psychology of
sex has been studied too largely from the abnormal and pathological
side; while the popular idea is based too much on fiction and drama
which emphasize the high lights and make love solely an affair of
emotion. We are not arguing for a rationalization of love, for the terms
are almost contradictory; but we believe that more common sense could
profitably be used in considering the subject.

If a typical "love affair" be examined, it is found that propinquity and
a common basis for sympathy in some probably trivial matter lead to the
development of the sex instinct; the parental instinct begins to make
itself felt, particularly among women; the instincts of curiosity,
acquisitiveness, and various others play their part, and there then
appears a well-developed case of "love." Such love may satisfy a purely
biological definition, but it is incomplete. Love that is worthy of the
name must be a function of the will as well as of the emotions. There
must be a feeling on the part of each which finds strong satisfaction in
service rendered to the other. If the existence of this constituent of
love could be more widely recognized and watched for, it would probably
prevent many a sensible young man or woman from being stampeded into a
marriage of passion, where the real community of interest is slight;[99]
and sexual selection would be improved in a way that would count
immensely for the future of the race. More