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NA TURE 



\_Dec. 15, 1887 



his classical reading, he will find more traces of it than 

 those which he enumerates. Let him begin with the 

 Greek novelists, and see whether Heliodorus's account of 

 the loves of Theagenes and Chariclea will not come up 

 to his standard. 



But what are the conditions favourable to the growth 

 of romantic love ? Greece— by which Mr. Finck chiefly 

 means Athens — was cut off from such love by three 

 causes : the degraded position of women, the absence of 

 direct courtship, and the impossibility of exercising indi- 

 vidual preference (i. 126). The second and the third 

 seem to us to run together, but still we see here some of 

 the points on which romantic love depends ; and to these 

 may be added intellect (ii. 14), monogamy (i. 58), and a 

 long courtship (i. 59). The old-fashioned plan which 

 Goethe describes — 



" In der heroischen Zeit, da Gotter und Gottinnen liebten, 

 Folgte Begierde dem Blick, folgte Genuss der Begier," — 



has left us many a charming picture, and none more 

 charming than the Homeric hymn to .'Vphrodite ; but such 

 prompt satisfaction of love no doubt did not give to a 

 romantic passion sufficient time to grow. The feeling 

 was there, but rudimentary. Now, that rudimentary feel- 

 ing has so grown as to have largely pushed out of sight 

 its physical basis, and men and women act (or think they 

 act) upon other and higher impulses. To this change the 

 agencies enumerated by Mr. Finck have doubtless con- 

 tributed, and he would apparently acknowdedge, too, that 

 the general alteration in the position of women has 

 affected the way in which their lovers regard them. But 

 we should lay more stress than he does on the influence 

 of poets and novelists ; they have gone on painting unreal 

 feelings until they have made them real; what a few 

 characters felt at first has been worked by this agreeable 

 sermonizing into the nature of all the readers. 



But, after all, the starting-point of romantic love is 

 beauty. Where the women are secluded, beauty cannot 

 be seen. Where matches are made by the parents, beauty 

 does not count. But, where free selection is left to young 

 people, beauty takes its proper place. It is a sign of 

 health, and "love in its primitive form urges animals to 

 prefer those that are most healthy." Mr. Finck therefore 

 goes on next to describe the causes which bring out 

 beauty: "a climate tempting to outdoor life; a con- 

 siderable amount of intellectual culture and cESthetic 

 refinement ; a mixture of nationalities, fusing ethfiic 

 peculiarities into aa harmonious whole ; and love, which 

 fuses individual complementary qualities into an har- 

 monious e7iseinble of beautiful features, graceful figure, 

 amiable disposition, and refined manners" (ii. 25); or, 

 more shortly, health, crossing, love, and mental refine- 

 ment (ii. 73). Thus love and beauty act and react on 

 each other ; in connection with which point Mr. Finck 

 makes a suggestion of some importance when he says 

 (ii. 94-95) : — 



" The artificial preservation of disease and deformity, 

 in and out of hospitals, due to Christian charity, might in 

 the long run prove injurious to the welfare of the human 

 race, were it not for the stepping-in of modern love as a 

 preserver of health and beauty. What formerly was left 

 to the agency of natural selection, is now d )ne by love, 

 through sexual selection, on a vast scale." 



It is even more difficult to persuade women than it is to 

 persuade men to do what is good for them, and if the close 

 connection thus pointed out between health and beauty 

 will not induce women to take a little trouble to preserve 

 or improve the former, we must give them up as hopeless. 

 By insisting on this cardinal truth, Mr. Finck will do a 

 useful work, though some day perhaps our descendants 

 vt'ill wonder that it should have needed insisting. There 

 is room enough for improvement in both health and 

 beauty. Mr. Galton tells us that "our human civilized 

 stock is far more weakly through congenital imperfection 

 than that of any other species of animals" ; while, as for 

 beauty, it is likely that the world is but at the beginning 

 of what sexual selection, unhatnpered and unthwartedby 

 other agencies, can do for us. It is, Mr. Finck affirms, 

 a moral duty for girls to defy parental tyranny " where 

 money or rank are pitted against love. For the health 

 and happiness of the next generation are at stake." 



This is strong speaking ; but still, if our author would 

 always speak as seriously and soberly as this we should 

 have but little quarrel with him. Unfortunately he has 

 spoiled an interesting book, not only by a gossiping and 

 confused arrangement of its matter, but also by an 

 intolerably jaunty style, flavoured with Americanisms. A 

 book which claims scientific value should not be dis- 

 figured by stupid jokes (as on Prior and priority), or by 

 such phrases as " the female persuasion," "Schopenhauer's 

 Will is an aesthetic sort of a chap," " a young animal that 

 would risk its own life in defence of its mother or father 

 is yet to be heard from." F. T. Richards. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 



Earth- Knowledge : A Text -book of Elementary Physio- 

 graphy. By W. J. Harrison, F.G.S., and H. R. 

 Wakefield. (London: Blackie and Son, 1887.) 



This is a small text-book adapted to the somewhat re- 

 modelled syllabus of the Science and Art Department's 

 elementary stage of physiography. There can be no 

 doubt about the usefulness of the book, but it is to be 

 regretted that more oiiginality is not displayed in the 

 treatment of the subje t of matter and energy. Of the 

 rest of the book no complaint can be made : it is 

 excellent. That which deals with matter and energy, 

 however, is meagre and unequal, and the arrangement 

 is at times unnatural. Gravitation, for instance, is dis- 

 cussed without any direct reference to weight, although 

 two pages are devoted to the methods of determining 

 specific gravities. Then, again, one would scarcely 

 expect nowadays to read a chapter on energy without 

 finding some mention of the doctrine of the conservation 

 of energy. 



We are afraid, also, that the chapter on voltaic electri- 

 city will be rather misleading to beginners, as no mention 

 whatever is made of the existence of any kind of battery 

 beyond that consisting of a single copper-zinc cell, whilst 

 effects are described which could only be produced by the 

 current from many such cells. The definition of a stress 

 as the "mutual action at the surface of contact between 

 two bodies, whereby each exerts a force upon the other," 

 is also rather misleading, since it does not include the 

 stresses of gravitation, electricity, and magnetism. 



Of course too much cannot be expected of an ele- 

 mentary text-book, but it is quite time that the modern 

 ideas regarding force, energy, and matter should be 

 introduced into such books. A. F. 



