Chap. XIX.] BEAUTY. 33/ 



a medium standard ; they .certainly do not desire any great 

 and abrupt change in the character of their breeds ; they 

 admire solely what they are accustomed to behold, but. 

 they ardently desire to see each characteristic feature a 

 little more developed. 



No doubt the perceptive powers of man and the lower 

 animals are so constituted that brilliant colors and certain 

 forms, as well as harmonious and rhythmical sounds, give 

 pleasure and are called, beautiful ; but why this should, be 

 so, we know no more than why certain bodily sensations 

 are agreeable and others disagreeable. It is certainly not 

 true that there is in the mind of man any universal stand- 

 ard of beauty with respect to the human body. It is, how- 

 ever, possible that certain tastes may in the course of time 

 become inherited, though I know of no evidence in favor 

 of this belief; and if so, each race would possess its own 

 innate ideal standard of beauty. It has been argued 69 

 that ugliness consists in an approach to the structure of 

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

 civilized nations, in which intellect is highly appreciated ; 

 but a nose twice as prominent, or eyes twice as large as 

 usual would not be an approach in structure to any of the 

 lower animals, and yet would be utterly hideous. The 

 men of each race prefer what they are accustomed to be- 

 hold ; they cannot endure any great change ; but they like 

 variety, and admire each characteristic point carried to a 

 moderate extreme. 70 Men accustomed to a nearly oval 

 face, to straight and regular features, and to bright colors, 

 admire, as we Europeans know, these points when strongly 

 developed. On the other hand, men accustomed to a 

 broad face, with high cheek-bones, a depressed nose, and 



69 Schaaffhausen, * Archiv fur Anthropologic,' 1866, s. 164. 



70 Mr. Bain has collected (' Mental and Moral Science,' 1868, pp. 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. 



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