$86 The Descent of Man. Part Hi. 



than other men with plainer wives, save the few who bequeath 

 their fortunes according to primogeniture. With respect to the 

 opposite form of selection, namely of the more attractive men by 

 the women, although in civilised 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 depends 

 much on their intellectual powers and energy, or on the fruits of 

 these same powers in their forefathers. Ko excuse is needed for 

 treating this subject in some detail ; for, as the German philo- 

 sopher Schopenhauer remarks, " the final aim of all love 

 " intrigues, be they comic or tragic, is really of more importance 

 " than all other ends in human life. What it all turns upon is 

 " nothing less than the composition of the next generation. . . , 

 " It is not the weal or woe of any one individual, but that of the 

 " human race to come, which is here at stake." 1 



There is, however, reason to believe that in certain civilised 

 and semi-civilised nations sexual selection has effected some- 

 thing in modifying the bodily frame of some of the members. 

 Many persons are convinced, as it appears to me with justice, 

 that our aristocracy, including under this term all wealthy 

 families in which primogeniture has long prevailed, from having 

 chosen during many generations from all classes the more beau- 

 tiful women as their wives, have become handsomer, according 

 to the European standard, than the middle classes ; yet the 

 middle classes are placed under equally favourable conditions of 

 life for the perfect development 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 intermixtures 

 "' with the Georgians and Circassians, two nations which surpass 

 " all the world in personal beauty. There is hardly a man of 

 " rank in Persia who is not born of a Georgian or Circassian 

 " mother." He adds that they inherit their beauty, " not from 

 ,: their ancestors, for without the above mixture, the men of 

 " rank in Persia, who are descendants of the Tartars, would be 

 u extremely ugly." 2 Here is a more curious case ; the priestesses 



1 ' Schopenhauer and Darwinism,' &c. 1822, p. 393), who attributes 

 in 'Journal of Anthropology,' Jan. the beauty of the upper classes ip 

 1871, p. 323. England to the men having lonp 



2 These quotations are taken from elected the more beautiful women, 

 Lawrence (' Lectures on Physiology,' 



