356 SEXUAL SELECTIOX: MAN. Part II. 



attracted by tlie mental charms of women, by tlieir 

 wealth, and especially by their social position ; for men 

 rarely marry into a much lower rank of life. The men 

 who succeed in obtaining the more beautiful women, 

 will not have a better chance of leaving a long line 

 of descendants than other men with plainer wives, with 

 the exception of the few who bequeath their fortunes 

 according to primogeniture. With respect to the op- 

 posite form of selection, namely of the more attractive 

 men by the women, although in civilised nations women 

 have free or almost free choice, w^hich is not the case 

 with barbarous races, yet their choice is largely in- 

 fluenced by the social position and wealth of the men ; 

 and the success of the latter in life largely depends on 

 their intellectual powers and energy, or on the fruits of 

 these same powers in their forefathers. 



There is, however, reason to believe that sexual 

 selection has effected sometliing in certain civilised and 

 serai-civilised nations. Many persons are convinced, as 

 it appears to me with justice, that the members of our 

 aristocracy, including under this term all wealthy fami- 

 lies in which primogeniture has long prevailed, from 

 having chosen during many generations from all classes 

 the more beautiful women as their wives, have become 

 handsomer, according to the European standard of 

 beauty, than the middle classes ; yet the middle classes 

 are placed under equally favourable conditions of life 

 for the perfect development of the body. Cook re- 

 marks that the superiority in personal appearance 

 '^ which is observable in the erees or nobles in all the 

 " other islands (of the Pacific) is found in the Sandwich 

 " islands ; " but this may be chiefly due to their better 

 food and manner of life. 



The old traveller Chardin, in describing the Persians, 

 says their *• blood is now highly refined by frequent 



