CHAP. VI.) BEAUTY, HOW ACQUIRED. 15l 



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 fertilised by the 

 wind it never has a gaily-coloured corolla. Several plants habitu- 

 ally produce two kinds of flowers ; one kind open and coloured so 

 as to attract insects ; the other closed, not coloured, destitute of 

 nectar, and never visited by insects. Hence we may conclude 

 that, if insects had not been developed 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 fertilised 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 gaily- 

 coloured fruit of the spindle-wood tree and the scarlet berries of 

 the holly are beautiful objects, will be admitted by every one. 

 But tlu's beauty serves merely as a guide to birds and beasts, 

 in order that the fruit may be devoured and the manured seeds 

 disseminated: I infer that this is the case from having as yet 

 found no exception to the rule that seeds are always thu? 

 disseminated when embedded within a fruit of any kind (that is 

 within a fleshy or pulpy envelope), if it be coloured of any brilliant 

 tint, or rendered conspicuous by being white or black. 



On the other hand, I willingly admit that a great number of 

 male animals, as all our most gorgeous birds, some fishes, reptiles, 

 and mammals, and a host of magnificently coloured butterflies, 

 have been rendered beautiful for beauty's sake ; but this has been 

 effected through sexual selection, that is, by the more beautiful 

 males having been continually preferred by the females, and not 

 for the delight of man. So it is with the music of birds. We 

 may infer from all this that a nearly similar taste for beautiful 

 colours and for musical sounds runs through a large part of the 

 animal kingdom. When the female is as beautifully coloured as 

 the male, which is not rarely the case with birds and butterflies, 

 the cause apparently lies in the colours acquired through sexual 

 selection having been transmitted to both sexes, instead of to the 

 males alone. How the sense of beauty in its simplest form that 

 is, the reception of a peculiar kind of pleasure from certain colours, 

 forms, and sounds was first developed in the mind of man and 

 of the lower animals, is a very obscure subject. The same sort of 

 difficulty is presented, if we enquire how it is that certain flavours 

 and odours give pleasure, and others displeasure. Habit in all 

 these cases appears to have come to a certain extent into play; 

 but there must be some fundamental cause in the constitution of 

 tUe nervous system in each species. 



