EXCEPTIONS TO THE RULE. 177 



Exceptions to the Rule of Like Marrying Like. 



Man alone of all animals is endowed with freedom. This 

 involves the privilege or permission to violate law as well as 

 obey it. The lower animals as a rule obey the law of their 

 being, and the departure from the normal type is rare, it is 

 exceptional it is more uniformly the case that like chooses 

 like among the lower animals than with men. 



Nature has her inside and outside circles. Irregularities 

 must occur, especially with the human race, or else its free- 

 dom must be taken away, and that with its rationality is what 

 makes it what it is. 



What Makes Man a Man. A man is a man because 

 of his possessing rationality and freedom. Under the guid- 

 ance of these distinguishing characters, man is capable of 

 attaining the highest possible conditions of the finite; he is 

 also capable of descending below the brutes. Now, in this 

 wide range of capacities, while the larger and more general 

 rule teaches that like should mate with like, there is pro- 

 vision made for the departures from this rule to preserve 

 the equilibrium of the race, and this is effected by union in 

 marriage of extremes or opposites. Let us illustrate: There 

 is an average or normal height or size in a given race, but, 

 by a gradual operation of disturbing causes, we find instances 

 of extreme variation from that standard, and on one hand 

 are tall and slim specimens, on the other short and puny. 

 Shall the general rule of like mating with like prevail here, 

 and these tall and slender ones continue to intermarry? Na- 

 ture protests and implants a taste or instinct which induces 

 the very tall to unite with the very short, and vice versa, 

 and thus the equilibrium is restored. If the small woman 

 has a special admiration it is for a tall man, and if a tall man 

 dislikes one thing more than another it is a tall woman. 



There is in this rule no conflict with the larger one that 

 like should marry like. 



It is often observable that a strong, robust, coarse, 

 shaggy, red-faced, powerful man is drawn to the most 



