164 THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES 



we may conclude that the structure of every living creature either 

 now is, or was formerly, of some direct or indirect use to its pos- 

 sessor. 



With respect to the belief that organic beings have been created 

 beautiful for the delight of man — a belief which it has been pro- 

 nounced is subversive of my whole theory — I may first remark 

 that the sense of beauty obviously depends on the nature of the 

 mind, irrespective of any real quality in the admired object; and 

 that the idea of what is beautiful, is not innate or unalterable. We 

 see this, for instance, in the men of different races admiring an 

 entirely different standard of beauty in their women. If beautiful 

 objects had been created solely for man's gratification, it ought to 

 be shown that before man appeared there was less beauty on the 

 face of the earth than since he came on the stage. Were the beau- 

 tiful volute and cone shells of the Eocene epoch, and the grace- 

 fully sculptured ammonites of the Secondary period, created that 

 man might ages afterward admire them in his cabinet? Few ob- 

 jects are more beautiful than the minute siliceous cases of the 

 diatomacese: were these created that they might be examined and 

 admired under the higher powers of the microscope? The beauty 

 in this latter case, and in many others, is apparently wholly due 

 to symmetry of growth. Flowers rank among the most beautiful 

 productions of nature; but they have been rendered conspicuous 

 in contrast with the green leaves, and in consequence at the same 

 time beautiful, so that they may be easily observed by insects. I 

 have come to this conclusion from finding it an invariable rule 

 that when a flower is fertilized by the wind it never has a gayly- 

 colored corolla. Several plants habitually produce two kinds of 

 flowers; one kind open and colored so as to attract insects; the 

 other closed, not colored, destitute of nectar, and never visited by 

 insects. Hence, we may conclude that, if insects had not been de- 

 veloped on the face of the earth, our plants would not have been 

 decked with beautiful flowers, but would have produced only such 

 poor flowers as we see on our fir, oak, nut, and ash trees, on 

 grasses, spinach, docks and nettles, which are all fertilized through 

 the agency of the wind. A similar line of argument holds good 

 with fruits; that a ripe strawberry or cherry is as pleasing to the 

 eye as to the palate — that the gayly-colored fruit of the spindle- 

 wood tree and the scarlet berries of the holly are beautiful objects 

 — will be admitted by every one. But this beauty serves merely 

 as a guide to birds and beasts, in order that the fruit may be de- 

 voured and the matured seeds disseminated. I infer that this is the 

 case from having as yet found no exception to the rule that seeds 



