The female will not submit to seizure except in a high
state of nervous excitation (as is seen especially well in the wooing
of birds), while the male must conduct himself in such a way as to
manipulate the female; and, as the more active agent, he develops a
marvelous display of technique for this purpose. This is offset by the
coyness and coquetry of the female, by which she equally attracts and
fascinates the male and practices upon him to induce a corresponding
state of nervous excitation.[163]
This is the only situation in the life of the lower animals, at
any rate, where the choice of another is vitally important; and
corresponding with the elaborate technique to secure this choice we
have in wooing pleasure-pain reactions of a violent character. In a
word, extreme sensitiveness to the judgment of another answers on
the subjective side to technique for the conquest of a member of the
opposite sex. It seems, therefore, that we are justified in concluding
that our vanity and susceptibility have their origin largely in sexual
life, and that, in particular, our susceptibility to the opinion of
others and our dependence on their good will are genetically referable
to sexual life.
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