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Show SEXUAJ, SELECTION: l\fAN. PA!t1.' [[. attrac-ted bv the mental charms of wo.n~en, b! tl~eir wealth, ami' especia11y by their social posi~lOn i, !or men rarely marry into a much lower rank of ltfe: Ihe men who succeed in obtaining the more beautiful wom. Dr wm not have a better chance of leaving a :ong l~ne of Jrscendants than other men with plaiuer '~Jves, with the exception of the few who bequeath tbeu fortune~ accordinrr to primogeniture. With respect to tho ?Pposito fo~m of Rulection, namely ~f yJe mor~ atiractlvomon Ly tbr women, although in ClVIhsod .natwns women ]u:tve free or almost free choice, which IS not tho c~s. w"i th barbarous races, yet their c] 1 0·l ce l·S 1a rge1 y m - flncncod by tho social positio~ a~cl wealth of tho men; nncl the surcess of the latter m ltfe largely dopcn~s on. thci'r intellcctnal powers and energy, or on tho fruits of those same powers in their forefathers .. There is, however, reason to boliCv~ t~t~t. sexual Re 1o c t1. 011 llas• cf(L!· •t 'cted somethinr:::r:- in CQrtam CIVlh• sed 1a nd semi-civilised mttions. Many person:-; are convmce:' as it appears to me with jnstice, t~1a.t tho members of ou.r aristocracy, inclncling under thts term all wea~thy f~~1lli 8 in wbieh primogeniture hns lo~1g provadeJ, f~om havinrr chosen dnring many generatwns from aU cla ses tho I;; oro b auti!'ul women as their wives, have become. handsomer, arcording to the European ~tandard ol beauty, than the middle classes; yet the m1~dle c1as-:~s are phtced under equally favouraLle conditwn~ of_ h.l~) for the perfect development of tho body. Cool\. Iemarks that the superiority in personal n~)pearancc "which is observable in the crces or nobles m all t_he " other islanus (of tho Pacific) is found in tho S~nd WJch "islands;" but this may be chiefly due to the1r better food and ma11ner of life. . rrhe. olcl tnwcller Chardin, in describing the Pcrswns, says tllcir "blood is n0w highly refineu by freqnent CuAr. XX. SEXUAL SELECTION : MAN. '357 "intermixtures with the Georgians and Circassians, "two nations which ~urpass all tho "·orld in personal "beauty. There is ]w.rdly a man of rauk in Persia " who is not Lorn of n Georgian or Circa. ian mother." He adus that they inherit their beauty, "not from their ~'ancestors, for without the above mixture, the men of ':rank in Persia, who arc descendants of the Tartars, "would be extremely ugly." 1 Here is a more curious case: tho pricste. scs 'rho attended the temple of Venus Erycina at San-Giuliano in Sicily, were selected for theit· beauty ont of tho ·whole of Greece; they were not vestal virgins, a11d Quatrefages,2 who makes this statement, says that tho women of San-Giuliano n.re ftl.mous at the present day as the most beautiful in tho island, and arc sought by arti ts as model . But it is obvions that the evidence in the above cases is doubtful. The following case, though relating to savages, is well worth giving from its curiosity. Mr. vVinwood Reade informs me that the J ollofs, a tribe of negroes on the west coast of Africa, "are remarkable for their uni" formly fine appearance.'' A friend of his asked one of these men, "How is it that every one whom I meet is "so fine-looking, not only your men, bnt your women? 1'be Jollof answered, "lt is very easily explained: it "has always been our custom to pick out our worse" looking slaves and to sell them." It need hardly Lo added that with all savages female slaves serve a·s concubines. That this negro should have attributed, whether rightly or wrongly, the fine appearance of l1is tribe, to the long-continued elimination of the uo·ly t:>. 1 These quotations ore tnken ·from Lawrence (' J,ectures on Physi~ logy,' &c. 1822, p. 393), who attributes the beauty of tho up1Jer classes Jn I~ngland to tho men having long selected the more beautiful women. 2 "Anthropologie," • Revue des Com·s Scientifiques,' Oct. 18ti8, p. 721. |