f^iiginal Articles. 



DARWINISM AND BEAUT7. 



By Hekry Capper. 



Read before the Lancashire and ChesMre Entomological Society, Oct. 29, 1883^ 



It is strange and interesting to observe how a great discovery in any 

 department of thought will make its influence felt in other and 

 apparently dissimilar departments ; and perhaps no better illustration 

 of this tendency could be advanced than the great discovery of our 

 age — the theory of Evolution. Originally framed to explain facts of 

 natural history, its influence has been felt not only in religious and 

 philosophical thought, but in material science, notably in chemistry. 

 I allude to the hypothesis which, though its truth is so difficult to 

 demonstrate, seems so likely to be true if we may judge, from analogy, 

 that the so-called elements may not be elements after all, but, like 

 ammonium, merely compound radicals, there being in reality not more 

 than two or three true elements. But this is a digression. 



Whilst in no way under-rating the immense importance of Darwin's 

 discovery, is it not interesting to speculate upon how far its influence 

 in thought may be limited, say one hundred years hence ? We 

 are at present, as it were, dazzled by its virgin brilliancy, and 

 wherever we turn our eyes all things seem coloured by it. Bye-and- 

 bye, when the first glare h.as passed away, we shall probably see that, 

 after all, we have sometimes been deceived. Meanwhile it may be 

 profitable to occasionally rub our eyes a little to try and see more 

 clearly, for though the theory of evolution is the truth, and possibly 

 nothing but the truth, even its great discoverer would never have 

 claimed it as the whole truth. I purpose, in the following paper^ first 

 to notice what Darwin has to say on the subject of beauty, and after- 

 v/ards to bring forward a few independent considerations. 



Anyone who has read Darwin's works will doubtless remember the 

 charming chapter in the " Descent of Man," devoted to the consider- 

 ation of the origin of beauty in the butterfly. As this subject is 

 likely to be especially interesting to this Society, and as it contains 

 the key to all Darwin has to say upon the subject of beauty, I shall 

 endeavour to give a brief summary of his argument. In a former 

 chapter he has proved that the sense of beauty is not peculiar to man, 

 but that he has it in common with the lower animals. This is shown 

 to be the case when the males display their charms of colour or of 

 voice before the females during courtship. He also gives a number of 



X.S., Vol. ix. June, 1884. 



