354 SEXUAL SELECTION : MAN. Part II. 



and if so, each, race would possess its own innate ideal 

 standard of beauty. It has been argued ^^ that ugli- 

 ness consists in an approach to the structure of the 

 lower animals, and this no doubt is true with the more 

 civilised nations, in which intellect is highly appre- 

 ciated ; but a nose twice as prominent, or eyes twice 

 as large as usual, would not be an approach in struc- 

 ture to any of the lower animals, and yet would be 

 utterly hideous. The men of each race prefer what 

 they are accustomed to behold; they cannot endure 

 any great change ; but they like variety, and admire 

 each characteristic point carried to a moderate ex- 

 treme.'^° Men accustomed to a nearly oval face, to 

 straight and regular features, and to bright colours, 

 admire, as we Europeans know, these points when 

 strongly developed. On the other hand, men accus- 

 tomed to a broad face, with high cheek-bones, a de- 

 pressed nose, and a black skin, admire these points 

 strongly developed. No doubt characters of all kinds 

 may easily be too much developed for beauty. Hence a 

 perfect beauty, which implies many characters modified 

 in a particular manner, will in every race be a prodigy. 

 As the great anatomist Bichat long ago said, if every 

 one were cast in the same mould, there would be no such 

 thing as beauty. If all our women were to become as 

 beautiful as the Venus de Medici, we should for a time 

 be charmed ; but we should soon wish for variety ; and 

 as soon as we had obtained variety, we should wish to 

 see certain characters in our women a little exaggerated 

 beyond the then existing common standard. 



69 



Schaaffhausen, ' Archiv fiir Anthropologie,' 1866, s. 1G4. 

 "0 Mr. B.iiii has collected ('Mental and Moral Science,' 1808, p. 304- 

 314) about a dozen more or less different theories of the idea of beauty ; 

 but none are quite the same with that here given. 



