The Theory of Sexual Selection. 409 



the latest results of scientific classification seeing this, 

 it becomes impossible to doubt that the radiate form 

 is due to some morphological reasons of wide gener- 

 ality. Whether these reasons be connected with the 

 internal laws of growth, or to the external conditions 

 of environment, I do not pretend to suggest. But I 

 feel safe in saying that it cannot possibly be due to 

 any design to secure beauty for its own sake. The 

 very generality of the radiate form is in itself enough 

 to suggest that it must have some physical, as dis- 

 tinguished from an aesthetic, explanation ; for, if the 

 attainment of beauty had here been the object, surely 

 it might have been even more effectually accomplished 

 by adopting a greater variety of typical forms as, for 

 instance, in the case of flowers. 



Coming then, lastly, to the case of brilliant tints in 

 the lower animals, Mr. Darwin has soundly argued 

 that there is nothing forced or improbable in the 

 supposition that organic compounds, presenting as 

 they do such highly complex and such varied chemical 

 constitutions, should often present brilliant colouring 

 incidentally. Considered merely as colouring, there 

 is nothing in the world more magnificent than arterial 

 blood ; yet here the colouring is of purely utilitarian 

 significance. It is of the first importance in the 

 chemistry of respiration ; but is surely without any 

 meaning from an aesthetic point of view. For the 

 colour of the cheeks, and of the flesh generally, in 

 the white races of mankind, could have been produced 

 quite as effectually by the use of pigment as in the 

 case of certain monkeys. Now the fact that in the 

 case of blood, as in that of many other highly 

 coloured fluids and solids throughout the animal 



