Sexual generation—Base of ancient cosmogonies—Propagation non-sexual in simpler forms—Am?ba and cells—Germs and buds—Anemones—Worms—Spores—Origin of sex—Ovary and male organ—Hermaphrodites—Parthenogenesis—Bees and insects—Man and woman—Characters of each sex—Woman’s position—Improved by civilisation—Christianity the feminine pole—Monogamy the law of nature—Tone respecting women test of character—Women in literature—In society—Attraction and repulsion of sexes—Like attracts unlike—Ideal marriage—Woman’s rights and modern legislation. ‘Male and female created He them.’ At first sight this distinction of sex appears as fundamental as that of plant and animal. Mankind, and all the higher forms of life with which mankind has relations, can only propagate their species in one way: by the co-operation of two individuals of the species, who are essentially like and yet unlike, possessing attributes which are complementary of one another, and whose union is requisite to originate a new living unit—in other words, by sexual propagation. So certain does this appear that all ancient religions and philosophies begin by assuming a male and female principle for their gods, or first guesses at the unknown first causes of the phenomena of nature. Thus Ouranos and Gaia, Heaven and Earth; Ph?bus and Artemis, the Sun and Moon: are all figured by the primitive imagination as male and female; and the Spirit of God brooding over Chaos and producing the[103] world, is only a later edition, revised according to monotheistic ideas, of the far older Chaldean legend which describes the creation of Cosmos out of Chaos by the co-operation of great gods, male and female. Even in later and more advanced religions, traces of this ineradicable tendency to assume difference of sex as the indispensable condition of the creation of new existence are found to linger and crop up in cases where they are altogether inapplicable. Thus, in the orthodox Christian creed we are taught to repeat ‘begotten, not made,’ a phrase which is absolute nonsense, or non-sense—that is, an instance of using words like counterfeit notes, which have no solid value of an idea behind them. For ‘begotten’ is a very definite term, which implies the conjunction of two opposite sexes to produce a new individual. Unless two deities are assumed of different sexes the statement has no possible meaning. It is a curious instance of atavism, or the way in which the qualities and ideas of remote ancestors sometimes crop up in their posterity.
Science, however, makes sad havoc with this impression of sexual generation being the original and only mode of reproduction, and the microscope and dissecting knife of the naturalist introduce us to new and altogether unsuspected worlds of life. By far the larger proportion of living forms, in number at any rate, if not in size, have come into existence without the aid of sexual propagation. When we begin at the beginning, or with those Monera which are simple specks of homogeneous protoplasm, we find them multiplying by self-division. Am?ba A, when it outgrows its natural size, contracts in the middle and splits into two Am?b?, B and C, which are exactly like one another and like[104] the original A. In fact B contains one half of its parent A, and C the other half. They each grow to the size of the original A, and then repeat the process of splitting and duplicating themselves.
The next earliest stage in the evolution of living matter, the nucleated cell, does exactly the same thing. The nucleus splits into two, each of which becomes a new nucleus for the protoplasmic matter of the original cell, and either multiply within it, or burst the old cell-wall and become two new cells resembling the first.
The next stage in advance is that of propagation by germs or buds, in which the organism does not divide into two equal parts, but a small portion of it swells out at its surface, and finally parts company and starts on a separate existence which grows to the size of the parent by its inherent faculty of manufacturing fresh protoplasm from surrounding inorganic materials. This process may be witnessed any day in an aquarium containing specimens of the sea-anemone, where the minute new anemones may be seen in every form, both before and after they have parted from the parent body. It remains one of the principal modes of propagation of the vegetable world, where plants are multiplied from buds even after they have developed the higher mode of sexual propagation by seeds. In some of the lowest animals, such as worms, the buds are reduced to a small aggregation of cells, which form themselves into distinct individuals inside the body of the parent, and separate from it when they have attained a certain stage of development.
Advancing still further on the road towards sexual reproduction, we find these germ-buds reduced to spores, or single cells, which are emitted from the parent, and[105] afterwards multiply by division until they form a many-celled organism, which has the hereditary qualities of the original one. This is the general form of propagation of the lower plants, such as alg?, mosses, and ferns, and also of a number of the lower forms of animal-like microscopic organisms, such as bacteria, whose spores, floating in the air in enormous quantities, and multiplying when they find a fit soil with astonishing rapidity, in a few days devastate the potato crop of a whole district or bring about an epidemic of scarlet-fever or cholera. They have their use however in creation, and their action is beneficent as well as the reverse, for they are the principal cause of putrefaction, the process by which the dead organic matter, which, if not removed, would choke up the world, is resolved into the inorganic elements from which it sprang, and rendered available for fresh combinations.
We are now at the threshold of that system of sexual propagation which has become the rule in all the higher families of animals and in many plants. It may be conceived as originating in the amalgamation of some germ-cell or spore with the original cell which was about to develop into a germ-bud within the body of some individual, and by the union of the two producing a new and more vigorous originating cell which modified the course of development of the germ-bud and of its resulting organism. This organism, having advantages in the struggle for life, established itself permanently with ever new developments in the same direction, which would be fixed and extended in its descendants by heredity, and special organs developed to meet the altered conditions. Thus at length the distinction would be firmly established of a female organ or ovary containing[106] the egg or primitive cell from which the new being was to be developed, and a male organ supplying the fertilising spore or cell, which was necessary to start the egg in the evolutionary process by which it developed into the germ of an offspring combining qualities of the two parents. This is confirmed by a study of embryology, which shows that in the human and higher animal species the distinction of sex is not developed until a considerable progress has been made in the growth of the embryo. It is only however in the higher and more specialised families that we find this mode of propagation by two distinct individuals of different sexes firmly established. In the great majority of plants, and in some of the lower families of animals—for instance, snails and earth-worms—the male and female organs are developed within the same being, and they are what is called hermaphrodites. Thus, in most of the flowering plants the same blossom contains both the stamens and anther, which are the male organ, and the style and germ, which are the female.
Another transition form is Parthenogenesis, or virginal reproduction, in which germ-cells, apparently similar in all respects to egg-cells, develop themselves into new individuals without any fructifying element. This is found to be the case with many species of insects, and with this curious result, that those same germ-cells are often capable of being fructified, and in that case produce very different individuals. Thus, among the common bees, male bees or drones arise from the non-fructified eggs of the queen bee, while females are produced if the egg has been fructified.
In the higher families however of animal life the distinction of sex in different individuals has become[107] the universal rule, and it produces a polarity or contrast which becomes ever more conspicuous as we rise in the scale of creation, until it attains its highest development in the highest stage hitherto reached, that of civilised man and woman. Both physical and mental characteristics depend mainly on the fact that the ovary or egg-producing organ is developed in the female, and thus the whole work of reproduction is thrown on her. To perform this a large portion of the vital energy is required, which in the male is available for larger and more prolonged growth of organs, such as the brain, stature, and limbs, by which a more powerful grasp is attained of the outward environment. In other words, the female comes sooner to maturity and is weaker than the male. She is also animated by a much stronger love for the offspring, which is part of her own body, during the period of infancy; and thus, in addition to the physical attributes, such as lacteal glands and larger breasts, she inherits qualities of softness, amiability, and devotion, which fit her for the office of nurse. Her physical weakness, again, has made her, for untold ages, and even now in all the less advanced communities, and too often even in the most advanced, the slave of the stronger male. She has thus inherited many of the mental qualities which are essential to such a state: the desire to propitiate by pleasing and making herself attractive; the gentleness and submissiveness which shrink from a contest of brute force in which she is sure to be defeated; the clinging to a stronger nature for support, which in extreme cases leads to blind admiration of power and the spaniel-like attachment to a master whether deserving of it or not. As civilisation however advances, and as intellectual and moral[108] qualities gain ascendency over brute strength and animal instincts, the condition of woman improves, and it comes more and more to be recognised that she is not made to be man’s slave or plaything, but has her own personality and character, which, if in some respects inferior, are in others better than those of the male half of creation. Tennyson, the great poet of modern thought, who sums up so many of the ideas and tendencies of the age in concise and vigorous verse, writes:—
For woman is not undeveloped man,
Nor yet man’s opposite.
Not opposite, yet different, so that the one supplements what is wanting to the other, and the harmonious union of the two makes ideal perfection. It is the glory of European civilisation to have done so much to develop this idea of the equality of the sexes, and to have gone so far towards emancipating the weaker half of the human species from the tyranny of the stronger half.
It would be unfair to omit mention of the great part which Christianity has had in this good work; not only by direct precept and recognition of religious equality, but even more by the embodiment, as its ideal, of the feminine virtues of gentleness, humility, resignation, self-devotion, and charity. Ideal Christianity is, in fact, what may be called the feminine pole of conduct and morality, as opposed to the masculine one of courage, hardihood, energy, and self-reliance. Many of the precepts of Christianity are unworkable, and have to be silently dropped in practice. It would not answer either for individuals or nations ‘when smitten on one cheek to turn the other.’ When an appeal is made to fact to decide whether it is a right[109] rule to live as the sparrows do, taking no thought for the morrow, the verdict of fact is in favour of foresight and frugality. Herbert Spencer has stated this polarity very strongly as that of the religion of amity and the religion of enmity; but I think he states the case too adversely for the latter, for the qualities whi............