BEAUTY AND THE ELECTIVE AFFINITIES 183 



from a similarity of disposition. The woman's nature 

 ought to be the complement of the man's, and not its 

 rival. She ought to supply those qualities in which 

 he is lacking. The union of minds of a similar bent, 

 as we have shown in the chapters upon Consanguinity 

 and Blue Blood, is fraught with positive danger. 

 What the offspring of a great poet and poetess would 

 be we do not know by actual experiment, but analo- 

 gous combinations are not of a favourable character. 

 Maudsley cites the case of a married couple of marked 

 business aptitudes. Both the man and woman were 

 " extremely energetic, and by their joint exertions had 

 built up from the humblest beginnings a large and 

 lucrative business in London. The woman was of an 

 anxious, inconstant, irritable temperament, always 

 actively employed and eager in business; she died 

 at a good age. The man was sanguine, choleric, and 

 active, and died two years after her from apoplexy." 

 People of this stamp are not instinctively drawn to 

 each other ; they marry each other not for love but 

 for business, and Nature takes care to punish their 

 disregard of her laws. In the instance above quoted 

 there was a family of ten. Writing of the case as 

 one actually under his observation, Maudsley says : 

 " Four grown-up members of the family are already 



