350 
SEXUAL SELECTION: MAN. 
Part II. 
We thus see how widely the different races of man 
differ in their taste for the beautiful. In every nation 
sufficiently advanced to have made effigies of their gods 
or of their deified rulers, the sculptors no doubt have 
endeavoured to express their highest ideal of beauty 
and grandeur.®^ Under this point of view it is well to 
compare in our mind the Jupiter or Apollo of the Greeks 
with the Egyptian or Assyrian statues ; and these with 
the hideous bas-reliefs on the ruined buildings of Cen- 
tral America. 
I have met with very few statements opposed to the 
above conclusion. Mr. Win wood Keade, however, who 
has had ample opportunities for observation, not only 
with the negroes of the West Coast of Africa, but with 
those of the interior who have never associated with 
Europeans, is convinced that their ideas of beauty are 
on the whole the same as ours. He has repeatedly found 
that he agreed with negroes in their estimation of 
the beauty of the native girls ; and that their appreci- 
ation of the beauty of European women corresponded 
with ours. They admire long hair, and use artificial 
means to make it appear abundant ; they admire 
also a beard, though themselves very scantily pro- 
vided. Mr. Keade feels doubtful what kind of nose is 
most appreciated: a girl has been heard to say, 
do not want to marry him, he has got no nose ; ” and 
this shews that a very flat nose is not an object of admi- 
ration. We should, however, bear in mind that the 
depressed and very broad noses and projecting jaws of 
the negroes of the West Coast are exceptional types 
with the inhabitants of Africa. Notwithstanding the 
foregoing statements, Mr. Keade does not think it pro- 
Ch. Comte has remarks to this effect in his ‘ Traite de Legisla- 
tion/ 3rd edit. 1837, p. 136. 
