How glad, and more than glad, would Darwin have been to have read the tale of these spiders! It is, indeed, one of those ironies of fate, of which the world is so full, that he did not live to see this demonstration—for it is no less—of the truth of his most original and elevating views; elevating they may be well called, since they allow to the animal world an æsthetic faculty, the power, once thought exclusively human, of appreciating beauty. It is curious how willing many are to exalt humanity at the expense of all other beings. The higher faculties they like, and perception of the beautiful they like, and spirituality—especially in love—they like very much indeed; but they only like these things in their own species. That is to say, conceit lies at the bottom of all this exaltation. Such man-worshippers would not have more of a good thing in the world, but less, so that they may have all there is of it. On such grounds the war against evolution was waged, and its last struggles are against sexual selection. The body has been given up, but the spirit, which touches us yet more nearly, is still fiercely defended. In _Hasarius Hoyi_ “the sexes are very different, the male being the more conspicuous of the two. In his dances, the male has several movements. Most commonly he goes from side to side, with his first legs obliquely up. At other times he twists the abdomen to one side, and, bending low on the other, goes first in one direction for about two inches, and then, reversing, circles to the opposite point. The females are very savage, especially with each other, and even the members of the sterner sex are not always free from danger when paying their preparatory addresses. Once we saw a female eagerly watching a prancing male, and, as he slowly approached her, she raised her legs as if to strike him, but he, nothing daunted by her unkindly reception of his attentions, advanced even nearer, when she seized him and seemed to hold him by the head for a minute—he struggling. At last he freed himself and ran away.”[133] Yet “this same male, after a time, courted her successfully.” That so much savagery has to be overcome in the female, and finally is overcome by these dances, shows how powerfully she must be affected by them. Of another and previously undescribed species, “a dozen or more males, and about half as many females,” were found by the authors “assembled together” under natural conditions. “The males were rushing hither and thither, dancing opposite now one female and now another. Often two males met each other, when a short passage of arms followed. The males were very quarrelsome, and had frequent fights, but we never found that they were injured. Indeed, after having watched hundreds of seemingly terrible battles between the males of this and other species, the conclusion has been forced upon us that they are all sham affairs, gotten up for the purpose of displaying before the