248 DARWINISM STATED BY DARWIN HIMSELF. 



NO UNIVERSAL STANDARD OF BEAUTY AMONG MAN- 

 KIND. 



The senses of man and of the lower animals 

 seem to be so constituted that brilliant colors 

 and certain forms, as well as harmonious and rhythmical 

 sounds, give pleasure and are called beautiful ; but why 

 this should be so we know not. It is certainly not true 

 that there is in the mind of man any universal standard 

 of beauty with respect to the human body. It is, how- 

 ever, possible that certain tastes may in the course of 

 time become inherited, though there is no evidence in 

 favor of this belief ; and if so each race would possess its 

 "own innate ideal standard of beauty. It has been argued 

 that ugliness consists in an approach to the structure of 

 the lower animals, and no doubt this is partly true with 

 th^ more civilized nations, in which intellect is highly 

 appreciated ; but this explanation will hardly apply to all 

 forms of ugliness. The men of each race prefer what 

 they are accustomed to ; they can not endure any great 

 change ; but they like variety, and admire each charac- 

 teristic carried to a moderate extreme. Men accustomed 

 to a nearly oval face, to straight and regular features, 

 and to bright colors, admire, as we Europeans know, 

 these points when strongly developed. On the other 

 hand, men accustomed to a broad face, with high cheek- 

 bones, a depressed nose, and a black skin, admire these 

 peculiarities when strongly marked. No doubt charac- 

 ters of all kinds may be too much developed for beauty. 

 Hence a perfect beauty, which implies many characters 

 modified in a particular manner, will be in every race a 

 prodigy. As the great anatomist Bichat long ago said, 

 if every one were cast in the same mold, there would 

 be no such thing as beauty. If all our women were 



