COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE. 47 O. 



If it should be objected that their rubbing of noses has a 

 very remote resemblance to human osculation, we have only 

 to remind the reader that among certain savage races of man 

 the rubbing together of noses is the mode of greeting uni- 

 formly adopted, obviously taking the place of the kisses that 

 are so common in various civilised people, such as pre-emi- 

 nently the Germans and French. 



This appears to be the proper place also to take some 

 note of cesthetic perception in the lower animals of their 

 taste for the beautiful, of their appreciation of harmony, 

 whether in form, colour, or tone a subject on which no 

 man has written so much or so well as Charles Darwin. 

 First, then, it has to be remarked, as regards man, that 



1. The aesthetic sense is by no means common. It is 

 indeed frequently wanting (Nichols) ; while, where it is pre- 

 sent in certain savage races, it is frequently inferior in its 

 character to that which occurs, for instance, in many birds. 



2. There is no uniform standard or criterion of taste, 

 differing as it does in different races, peoples, and countries, 

 and as it has done at different epochs of human history or 

 in different stages of civilisation. Hence it is that what is 

 by one people, or at one time by the same race, considered 

 beautiful or tasteful is regarded by or at another as quite 

 the reverse. 



It does not follow, therefore, that the lower animals 

 have the same ideas of the beautiful that civilised or savage 

 man has. But that their conceptions, frequently at least, 

 coincide with those of man is proved by their admiration of 

 such magnificent plumage as that of the peacock's tail when 

 expanded. In other cases there is an admiration of the same 

 forms, patterns, or colours as by man (Darwin). Esthetic 

 taste in the lower animals includes a love of 



1. Novelty. 



2. Variety. 



3. Fashion. 



4. Ornament or finery. 



And it is exhibited in various forms of 



1. Artistic skill for instance, in the decorative arts, as 

 well as in the 



