offspring, as far as that was possible, would have been reared; so that the struggle for existence would have been periodically severe to an extreme degree. Thus during these primordial times all the conditions for sexual selection would have been much more favourable than at a later period, when man had advanced in his intellectual powers, but had retrograded in his instincts. Therefore, whatever influence sexual selection may have had in producing the differences between the races of man, and between man and the higher Quadrumana, this influence would have been much more powerful at a very remote period than at the present day. _On the Manner of Action of Sexual Selection with mankind._—With primeval men under the favourable conditions just stated, and with those savages who at the present time enter into any marriage tie (but subject to greater or less interference according as the habits of female infanticide, early betrothals, &c., are more or less practised), sexual selection will probably have acted in the following manner. The strongest and most vigorous men,—those who could best defend and hunt for their families, and during later times the chiefs or head-men,—those who were provided with the best weapons and who possessed the most property, such as a larger number of dogs or other animals, would have succeeded in rearing a greater average number of offspring, than would the weaker, poorer and lower members of the same tribes. There can, also, be no doubt that such men would generally have been able to select the more attractive women. At present the chiefs of nearly every tribe throughout the world succeed in obtaining more than one wife. Until recently, as I hear from Mr. Mantell, almost every girl in New Zealand, who was pretty, or promised to be pretty, was _tapu_ to some chief. With the Kafirs, as Mr. C. Hamilton states,[462] “the chiefs generally have the pick of the women for many miles round, and are most persevering in establishing or confirming their privilege.” We have seen that each race has its own style of beauty, and we know that it is natural to man to admire each characteristic point in his domestic animals, dress, ornaments, and personal appearance, when carried a little beyond the common standard. If then the several foregoing propositions be admitted, and I cannot see that they are doubtful, it would be an inexplicable circumstance, if the selection of the more attractive women by the more powerful men of each tribe, who would rear on an average a greater number of children, did not after the lapse of many generations modify to a certain extent the character of the tribe.