BEAUTY, HOW ACqVIRED. 191 



pends 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 en- 

 tirely different standard of beauty in their women. If beau- 

 tiful 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 beautiful volute and cone shells of 

 the Eocene epoch, and the gracefully sculptured ammonites 

 of the Secondary period, created that man might ages 

 afterward admire them in his cabinet? Pew objects are 

 more beautiful than the minute siliceous cases of the 

 diatomaceae : were these created that they might be ex- 

 amined 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 con- 

 trast 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 gaily-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 pro- 

 duced 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 gaily-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 devoured and the matured seeds dissem- 

 inated. I infer that this is the case from having as yet 

 found no exception to the rule that seeds are always thug 



