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Chap 6

for had they been important, they would have been long ago either fixed & preserved, or eliminated. In this respect man resembles those forms, called by naturalist protean or polymorphic which have remained extremely variable, owing, as it seems, to this variations being of an indifferent nature, & consequently not having been acted on by natural selection.

Thus far we have been baffled in all our attempts to account for the differences between the races of man; but there remains one [words excised] namely Sexual Selection

[Descent, p. 249: "The variability of all the characteristic differences between the races, before referred to, likewise indicates that these differences cannot be of much importance; for, had they been important, they would long ago have been either fixed and preserved, or eliminated. In this respect man resembles those forms, called by naturalists protean or polymorphic, which have remained extremely variable, owing, as it seems, to their variations being of an indifferent nature, and consequently to their having escaped the action of natural selection.

We have thus far been baffled in all our attempts to account for the differences between the races of man; but there remains one important agency, namely Sexual Selection, which appears to have acted as powerfully on man, as on many other animals."]