Human Physiology. 



to like; or, as often, perhaps, differences fit into each other. 

 We seek sympathy with our own tastes and habits ; or we find 

 in others what we lack. Thus the weak rest upon the strong, 

 the timid are fond of the courageous, the reckless seek guidance 

 of the prudent, and so on. 



In the attractions of the sexes, this love of opposites con- 

 stantly tends to neutralise those variations which are supposed 

 by Mr. Darwin to result in the generation of species. If it 

 were not for this law of the attraction of opposites, we might 

 have varieties perpetuated ; but there is now a constant ten- 

 dency to correct variations, and maintain the general character 

 of the species. It is, therefore, very rarely that, where there is 

 freedom of choice, two very tall or very short persons, very 

 lean or fat, very dark or fair, are mated together. One has* but 

 to look about him in the classes where there is most freedom and 

 opportunity of choice, to see how admirably nature manages to 

 keep the balance of all such extremes. And this extends to 

 peculiarities of mental and moral character. It is notorious 

 that most men of genius marry pretty simpletons ; and the 

 sweetest and best women seem to have a perverse fondness for 

 scamps. How many hard, bad men do we see and read of, 

 whose wives were models of saintly purity ! We expect Socrates 

 to have his Xantippe. 



The sentiment of love for the opposite sex tender, romantic, 

 passionate begins very early in life. Fathers and daughters, 

 mothers and sons, have a special fondness for each other, as 

 also have brothers and sisters; but the boy soon comes to 

 admire some one, generally older than himself, who is not 2. 

 relation. Very little girls find a hero in some friend of an elder 

 brother. Fondness for cousins generally comes more from 

 opportunity than natural attraction, though a cousin may have 

 very little appearance of family relation. The law appears to 

 be, that free choice seeks the diverse and distant. A stranger 

 has always a better chance with the young ladies of any dis- 



