BEAUTY AND THE ELECTIVE AFFINITIES 165 



Orientals the custom exists of staining the teeth 

 black. This, however, is only a caprice of fashion, 

 arising from the idea that it is not becoming to have 

 one's teeth white " like those of a dog." 



In physical beauty, as in art, formula plays its part. 

 That is best in men's eyes which most resembles 

 themselves. As a French writer has wittily observed, 

 if the Triangles had a god, he would be three-sided. 

 Every race fixes its standard of beauty in accordance 

 with its own characteristics, which are apt to be 

 pushed to an extreme ; and we can always discover 

 the prevalent conception of beauty in a given people 

 by the efforts of individuals to beautify themselves. 

 Thus, the Hottentots blacken their skins ; flat-nosed 

 races flatten their noses to an unnatural degree by 

 art ; the Sioux brave having naturally little beard, 

 makes a point of plucking his chin bare ; the Chinese, 

 who have small feet, try to make them still smaller ; 

 the Eed Indian squaw reddens herself with coloured 

 earths ; the white woman whitens her skin and tints 

 her lips and her cheeks. The ancient Greeks had a 

 more open facial angle than their barbarous neigh- 

 bours, and in their works of art they exaggerated 

 that feature. It is in a similar spirit that English- 

 women, naturally tall and slender, subject them- 



