178 MARRIAGE AND HEREDITY 



combine with aquiline, that tall men prefer short 

 women, or that women of delicate sentiment are 

 specially attracted by ignorant and boorish but 

 vigorous men. Still more absurd, if possible, are 

 Schopenhauer's theories as to fair people being a 

 species of monstrosity, and having a strong desire to 

 select dark partners, whereas dark people are seldom 

 attracted by fair ones. The cultivation of excellence 

 rather than the correction of existing defects appears 

 to be Nature's aim. A good-looking man is not im- 

 pelled to throw himseK away upon an ugly woman ; 

 his inclination is to seek a partner as good or better 

 than himself 



Regularity of feature and what is called expression, 

 both undoubted elements of beauty, have probably 

 some subtle relation to the moral qualities. We are 

 certainly accustomed to judge of the character of men 

 and women by their faces. One person is attracted 

 by one style of features, another by another. If 

 Nature's laws of combination and metamorphosis in 

 heredity were thoroughly understood, which they are 

 not at present, we should probably find that these 

 instinctive preferences were a guide to the more 

 satisfactory unions in point of moral disposition. The 

 question of blondes and brunettes falls into the same 



