340 SEXUAL SELECTION: MAN. [Part II. 



interfere with the action of sexual selection as far as the 

 bodily frame is concerned. Civilized men are largely at- 

 tracted by the mental charms of women, by their wealth, 

 and especially by their social position ; for men rarely 

 marry into a much lower rank of life. The men who suc- 

 ceed 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 primogeni- 

 ture. With respect to the opposite form of selection, 

 namely, of the more attractive men by the women, al- 

 though in civilized nations women have free or almost 

 free choice, which is not the case with barbarous races, 

 yet their choice is largely influenced 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 se- 

 lection has effected something in certain civilized and 

 semi-civilized nations. Many persons are convinced, as it 

 appears to me with justice, that the members of our aris- 

 tocracy, including under this term all wealthy families 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 favorable conditions of life for the perfect devel- 

 opment of the body. Cook remarks 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 inter* 



