The Descent of Man

inforcement of many of our mental faculties by
sexual selection, that, firstly, they notoriously
undergo a considerable change at puberty (25.
Maudsley, 'Mind and Body,' p. 31.), and, secondly,
that eunuchs remain throughout life
inferior in these same qualities. Thus, man has
ultimately become superior to woman. It is,
indeed, fortunate that the law of the equal
transmission of characters to both sexes prevails
with mammals; otherwise, it is probable
that man would have become as superior in
mental endowment to woman, as the peacock
is in ornamental plumage to the peahen.
It must be borne in mind that the tendency in
characters acquired by either sex late in life, to
be transmitted to the same sex at the same age,
and of early acquired characters to be transmitted
to both sexes, are rules which, though general,
do not always hold. If they always held
good, we might conclude (but I here exceed my
proper bounds) that the inherited effects of the