98 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



because we cannot here, as in the case of vegetables, 

 point to any benefit as generally arising from bright 

 colors and beautiful forms. On the principles of natural- 

 ism, therefore, we are driven to conclude that the beauty 

 here is purely adventitious, or accidental. Nor need we 

 be afraid to make this admission, if only we take a suffi- 

 ciently wide view of the facts. For, when we do take 

 such a view, we find that beauty here is by no means of 

 invariable, or even of general, occurrence. There is no 

 loveliness about an oyster or a lob-worm; parasites, as a 

 rule, are positively uglj', and they constitute a good half 

 of all animal species. The truth seems to be, when we 

 look attentively at the matter, that in all cases where 

 beauty does occur in these lower forms of animal life, 

 its presence is owing to one of two things — either to the 

 radiate form, or to the bright tints." Mr. Romanes then 

 shows that neither of these circumstances have primarily 

 any reference to beauty, and we must consequently 

 conclude that the beauty of such structures is a purely 

 accidental feature of their organization. 



But having shown this to be the case, might it not be 

 justifiable to extend the conclusion, as Mr. Wallace has 

 done, and decide that wherever beauty is found in ani- 

 mate nature it is accidental and due to the mechanical 

 or organic necessities of the case? Clearly the general- 

 ization should not be made without looking at the ques- 

 tion from other aspects. On looking at color in the 

 broadest possible manner, it is found to be of two sorts: 

 colors incidental to the nature or properties of a sub- 

 stance or organism, as the red of blood, green of leaves, 

 brown of earth and blue of sky; and colors which do 

 not appear in any way mechanically essential to the 

 organisms possessing them, but to have been produced 

 for an effect upon some percipient being. It is hardly 

 necessary to call attention to the fact that all color is 



