[11] Huxley spoke of this “as one of the greatest scientific works ever published.”—Translator.
[12] Of which Darwin said that the _Descent of Man_ would probably never have been written if he had seen it earlier.—Translator.
It was not until 1871, twelve years after the appearance of _The Origin of Species,_ that Darwin published the famous work which made the much-contested application of his theory to man, and crowned the splendid structure of his system. This important work was _The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex._ In this Darwin expressly drew the conclusion, with rigorous logic, that man also must have been developed out of lower species, and described the important part played by sexual selection in the elevation of man and the other higher animals. He showed that the careful selection which the sexes exercise on each other in regard to sexual relations and procreation, and the æsthetic feeling which the higher animals develop through this, are of the utmost importance in the progressive development of forms and the differentiation of the sexes. The males choosing the handsomest females in one class of animals, and the females choosing only the finest-looking males in another, the special features and the sexual characteristics are increasingly accentuated. In fact, some of the higher animals develop in this connection a finer taste and judgment than man himself. But, even as regards man, it is to this sexual selection that we owe the family-life, which is the chief foundation of civilisation. The rise of the human race is due for the most part to the advanced sexual selection which our ancestors exercised in choosing their mates.
Darwin accepted in the main the general outlines of man’s ancestral tree, as I gave it in the _General Morphology_ and the _History of Creation,_ and admitted that his studies led him to the same conclusion. That he did not at once apply the theory to man in his first work was a commendable piece of discretion; such a sequel was bound to excite the strongest opposition to the whole theory. The first thing to do was to establish it as regards the animal and plant worlds. The subsequent extension to man was bound to be made sooner or later.