Chap. VI.] BEAUTY, HOW ACQUIRED. 251 



ancient fish-like progenitor of the whole class. It is 

 scarcely possible to decide how much allowance ought 

 to be made for such causes of change, as the definite 

 action of external conditions, so-called spontaneous 

 variations, and the complex laws of growth; but with 

 these important exceptions, we may conclude that 

 the structure of every living creature either now is, 

 or was formerly, of some direct or indirect use to its 

 possessor. 



With respect to the belief that organic beings have 

 been created beautiful for the delight of man, — a belief 

 which it has been pronounced 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 quahty 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 beautiful volute and cone shells of 

 the Eocene epoch, and the gracefully sculptured am- 

 monites of the Secondary period, created that man 

 might ages afterwards admire them in his cabinet? 

 Few objeeis are more beautiful than the minute silice- 

 ous eases 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 amongst the most 

 beautiful productions of nature; but they have been 



