Feminism; Women; Women -- Social and moral questions; Women -- Social conditions
"We Breeders pay more attention to the bull because he can sire fifty
calves yearly; while the cow can produce only one. One can afford to pay
a thousand guineas for a bull, whereas one cannot afford fifty cows at
the same price. And the purchase of a first-class bull is the cheapest
way of getting a good herd. The history of practically every great herd
is the history of some particular bull. As we say, '_a bull is half the
herd_.' It is equally true to say that every great bull is the son of a
great cow. With one highly-prepotent bull we can raise a high-class
herd, even if we start with second-rate females; while a bad bull will
ruin the best herd in the county. It is for this reason that we 'put all
our money' on the bull."
All of which supports my theory that the male is the impelling agency
in Adaptation to Environment, or evolutionary development on the plane
of physics, and that such progressive development is achieved by way of
the male traits being Dominant upon this plane, and manifesting,
accordingly, in the physical terms of stature and muscle and
force-production.
The male being the determinant agent in the physical characteristics of
size and flesh and nervous energy--for which breeders of Live-stock are
making--the bull is "half the herd." "With one highly-prepotent bull," a
high-class herd may be raised, even though inaugurated with second-rate
females. Whilst "a bad bull will ruin the best herd in the county." Akin
to which is the circumstance that, in two generations, the improvement
which occurs in the offspring of a New Forest pony-mare when mated with
a horse, lapses; the descendants reverting to the type of the New Forest
pony.
If, however, the male, being the agent of Adaptation, determines
progressive development in the direction of such physical traits as
further fit species to its material environment, the female it is, that,
being the agency of the Evolution of Life (and of the equipment of
species in terms of Life, accordingly) supplies offspring with the Vital
potential of living cells and vital organs--heart, lungs, digestive and
assimilative organs and functions--which, by engendering the multiple
functions and vital processes of Life, _sustain_ the existence and the
powers of the organism in relation to environment. The female, moreover,
provides it with the Vital potential of reproductive organs for the
transmission of types ever further evolved and adapted, in terms both of
Life and Adaptation.
The male thus broadly sketches out the lines and supplies the initiative
of structural development. The female supplements the sketch with the
structural potential of living cells, whereby structural development is
achieved; as too with the vital potential of organs whereby living
organisation is sustained and transmitted.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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