Chap. XIX. 
BEAUTY. 
353 
artificially modified this is necessarily the case. The 
Arab women of the Upper Nile occupy about three days 
in dressing their hair; they never imitate other tribes, 
but simply vie witli each other in the superlativeness 
of their own style.’’ Dr. Wilson, in speaking of the 
compressed skulls of various American races, adds, such 
'' usages are among the least eradicable, and long sur- 
vive the shock of revolutions that change dynasties 
and eiface more important national peculiarities.”^^ 
The same principle comes largely into play in the art of 
selection ; and we can thus understand, as I have else- 
where explained,^^ the wonderful development of all the 
races of animals and plants which are kept merely for 
ornament. Fanciers always wish each character to be 
somewhat increased ; they do not admire a medium 
standard ; they certainly do not desire any great and 
abrupt change in the character of their breeds ; they 
admire solely what they are accustomed to behold, but 
they ardently desire to see each characteristic feature 
a little more developed. 
No doubt the perceptive powers of man and the 
lower animals are so constituted that brilliant colours 
and certain forms, as well as harmonious and rhythmical 
sounds, give pleasure and are called beautiful ; but why 
tin's should be so, we know no more than why certain 
bodily sensations are agreeable and others disagreeable. 
It is certainly not true that there is in the mind of 
man any universal standard of beauty with respect to 
the human body. It is, however, possible that certain 
tastes may in the course of time become inherited, 
though I know of no evidence in favour of this belief ; 
‘ Smithsonian Institution, 1863, p. 289. On the fashions of Arab 
women, Sir S. Baker, ‘The Nile Tributaries,* 1867, p. 121. 
68 « The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication,* vol. i. 
p. 214 ; vol. ii. p. 240. 
VOL. II. 2 A 
