We have learnt more about the nature of
sex in the decade or so since the publication of the new edition of the
"Evolution of Sex" than in all preceding time. Such, at least, is the
well-grounded opinion of all who have acquainted themselves with the
work of the Mendelians, as we shall see: and therefore that book is by
no means commended to the reader's attention as the last word upon the
subject. The rather would one particularly direct him to the following
prophetic and admirable passage in the preface of 1900:--
"Our hope is that the growing strength of the still young school of
experimental evolutionists may before many years yield results
which will involve not merely a revision, but a recasting of our
book."
--a passage which may well content the authors to-day, when its
fulfilment is so signal.
Yet assuredly the main thesis of the volume stands, and profoundly
concerns every student of womanhood in any of its aspects. It will
continue to stand when the brilliant foolishness of such writers as poor
Weininger, the author of that evidently insane product "Sex and
Character," is rightly estimated as interesting to the student of mental
pathology alone. There has lately been a kind of epidemic citation from
Weininger, whose book is obviously rich in characters that make it
attractive to the ignorant and the many; and it is high time that we
should concern ourselves less with the product of a suicidal and
much-to-be-pitied boy, and more with the sober and scientific work for
which daily verification is always at hand.
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