Chap. XX.] MANNER OF ACTION. 353 



of the women for many miles round, and are most perse- 

 vering in establishing or confirming their privilege." We 

 have seen that each race has its own style of beauty, and 

 we know that it is natural to man to admire each charac- 

 teristic point in his domestic animals, dress, ornaments, 

 and personal appearance, when carried a little beyond the 

 common standard. If, then, the several foregoing proposi- 

 tions be admitted, and I cannot see that they are doubtful, 

 it would be an inexplicable circumstance, if the selection 

 of the more attractive women by the more powerful men 

 of each tribe, who would rear on an average a greater 

 number of children, did not after the lapse of many gen- 

 erations modify to a certain extent the character of the 

 tribe. 



With our domestic animals, when a foreign breed is 

 introduced into a new country, or when a native breed is 

 long and carefully attended to, either for use or ornament, 

 it is found after several generations to have undergone, 

 whenever the means of comparison exist, a greater or less 

 amount of change. This follows from unconscious selec- 

 tion during a long series of generations — that is, the pres- 

 ervation of the most approved individuals — without any 

 wish or expectation of such a result on the part of the 

 breeder. So, again, if two careful breeders rear during 

 many years animals of the same family, and do not com- 

 pare them together or with a common standard, the ani- 

 mals are found after a time to have become, to the surprise 

 of their owners, slightly different. 16 Each breeder has im- 

 pressed, as Von Nathusius well expresses it, the character 

 of his own mind — his own taste and judgment — on his 

 animals. What reason, then, can be assigned Avhy similar 

 results should not follow from the lons:-continued selection 

 of the most admired women by those men of each tribe 



16 ' The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication,' vol. 

 ii. pp. 210-217. 



