354 • 
SEXUAL selection: man. 
Part II. 
and if so, each race would possess its own innate ideal 
standard of beauty. It has been argued that ugli- 
ness consists in an approach to the structure of the 
lower animals, and this no doubt is true with the more 
civilised nations, in which intellect is highly appre- 
ciated ; but a nose twice as prominent, or eyes twice 
as large as usual, would not be an approach in struc- 
ture to any of the lower animals, and yet would be 
utterly hideous. The men of each race prefer what 
they are accustomed to behold ; they cannot endure 
any great change ; but they like variety, and admire 
each characteristic point carried to a moderate ex- 
treme."^^ Men accustomed to a nearly oval face, to 
straight and regular features, and to bright colours, 
admire, as we Europeans know, these points when 
strongly developed. On tlie other hand, men accus- 
tomed to a broad face, with high cheek-bones, a de- 
pressed nose, and a black skin, admire these points 
strongly developed. No doubt characters of all kinds 
may easily be too much developed for beauty. Hence a 
perfect beauty, which implies many characters modified 
in a particular manner, will in every race be a prodigy. 
As the great anatomist Bichat long ago said, if every 
one were cast in the samu mould, there would be no such 
thing as beauty. If all our women were to become as 
beautiful as the Y enus de Medici, we should for a time 
be charmed ; but we should soon wish for variety ; and 
as soon as we had obtained variety, we should wish to 
see certain characters in our women a little exaggerated 
beyond the then existing common standard. 
Schaaff hausen, ^ Archiv fiir Antliropologie,’ 1866, s. 164. 
Mr. Bain lias collected (‘ Mental and Moral Science/ 1868, p. 304- 
314) about a dozen more or less diiferent theories of the idea of beauty ; 
but none are quite the same with that here given. 
