188a.] Beauty in the Eyes of an Evolutionist . 131 
body or mind — ensured a numerous viable offspring to those 
whose mating was regulated with reference thereto. 
Though confident that the theory must be corredt with 
reference to those beauties which produce the largest 
amount of emotion in the susceptible bosom of either sex, 
I am not prepared to say that the rule is universally appli- 
cable. Should the size, shape, or colour of any part of the 
body be of no importance, in such case, and in such case 
only, we may perhaps approve of the average of what we are 
accustomed to see. And thus we may dislike a very big 
or a very small nose, though either may perform its assigned 
office well enough. Again, some taste relating to a matter 
of no importance, if there be any such, may be regulated by 
sentiment. Thus, should an oppressed nation be ground 
down by a powerful foe notable for bushy beards, patriotic 
hatred might make bushy beards an abomination ; and in 
the oppressed community a bare chin might be etiquette for 
ages after the oppressor’s yoke had been cast off. 
It may strike some minds that, if a theory connecting 
beauty with the environments is correct, there would be a 
uniformity of taste in any community, and that there ought 
also to exist something like a general prevalence of the 
beauty fitted to the locality. To which possible objection I 
reply that, in a race dwelling for a great number of genera- 
tions in one environment, nearly all the members of the 
community would be very beautiful in one another’s eyes. 
And I have no doubt that wild animals, amongst whom 
Sexual Selection prevails, are much to be envied in this 
respeCt. For as Natural and Sexual Selection eliminate the 
members of the species which are ugly in the eyes of the 
same, all the survivors are adorned with qualities coinciding 
as nearly as possible with the prevalent aesthetic taste. At 
the same time any animal which man has domesticated 
must be hideous in the eyes (if still agreeable to the nose) 
of its wild relatives who have inherited likings which do 
not accord with the changed appearance given by man to the 
domestic creature for his own purposes. 
The inhabitants of any country which, like those of 
England, have sprung from ancestors of various environ- 
ments, cannot of course often be gratified by the sight of 
what they consider ideal beauty. Change of environment, 
whether it arise from the migration of a people, or from 
such fluctuations in the surroundings as spring up nowa- 
days in every civilised nation, is inimical to the gratification 
of inherited aesthetic taste. Therefore there cannot be any 
type of beauty generally accepted in a country originally 
