ISS5.J 
Origin of the Idea of the Beautiful . 
193 
II. ORIGIN OF THE IDEA OF THE 
BEAUTIFUL. 
By D. Y. Cliff. 
fSy 
M WAS Particularly struck the other day with this 
3) thought as I stood gazing from the heights of 
Rumble’s Moor up the rocky vale of the Wharfe • — 
Why was it “beautiful ” to me ? Why should my frame be 
thrilled and my thoughts elevated ? No wonder the old 
Jews were led to build altars in “ high places ” ! I have 
been down in the dark galleries of great coal-mines ; I 
have walked street after street of working men’s houses ; 
I have gone through great factories, and watched uncouth 
monsters doing the work of hosts of men ; but none of 
these were beautiful to me, or to any one else either. 
It is not “ being used to it.” It is not because it has a 
pleasant or objectionable association,— that is, affection, 
prejudice, bigotry. 
The face of one woman is sweet, another is repulsive, 
even though both are young ; these are with us every day, 
so it is not “ a matter of education.” 
Again, the Black Country, the Rochdale district, &c., 
have no charm for us; but the Royal Vale of Cheshire, or 
the woods and fields that line the “ swift flowing ” Wharfe, 
— the Bolton of Wordsworth, — these stay our gaze and 
aiouse oui better feelings. But they who live amongst 
these diveise scenes are neither better nor worse than other 
folks ; the appreciation of the beautiful is then no individual 
life matter. 
1 he explanation of all this is perhaps unromantic to 
some : there is no other solution to it than Evolution. It 
is inbred in our nature ; it is of a piece with the instincts 
of birds, See. ; in faCt it is a human instinCt. 
When we know that a healthy colour injthe’ cheeks be- 
tokens vitality, vigour, health, strength, &c., and bear in 
mind that such would be the “ fittest ” who would “survive” 
their weaker sisters, is there any longer a doubt why the 
rosy cheek became beautiful in our eyes ? 
Such men as mated with weaklings in the old ages would 
leave no offspring fit to hold their own, so that the red cheek 
would force itself (certainly through no, or little, choice) 
into our sense of the beautiful. Those of our fathers who 
