| → is not an innate and unalterable element in the mind. 1866 1869 |
| of what is beautiful, is not innate or unalterable. 1872 |
|
| → in 1866 1869 |
| for instance, in the 1872 |
|
| ↑ 1 blocks not present in 1859 1860 1861 1866 1869; present in 1872 |
| If beautiful objects had been created solely for man's gratification, it ought to be shown that before man appeared, there was less beauty on the face of the earth than since he came on the stage.
|
|
| → beauty in natural 1866 |
| picturesque beauty in 1869 |
|
| → become through natural selection beautiful, or rather 1866 1869 |
| been rendered 1872 |
|
| → greenness of the leaves, 1866 |
| green leaves, 1869 |
| green leaves, and in consequence at the same time beautiful, so 1872 |
|
| → We may safely 1866 |
| Hence we may 1869 1872 |
|
| → never existed 1866 1869 |
| not been developed 1872 |
|
|
obviously depends on the
of
irrespective of any real quality in the admired object; and that the idea
→is not an innate and unalterable element in the mind. We see
→in
men of different races admiring an entirely different standard of beauty in their
↑
The idea also of
→beauty in natural
scenery has arisen only within modern times. On the view of beautiful objects having been created for
gratification, it ought to be shown that there was less beauty on the face of the earth before man appeared than since he came on the stage. Were the beautiful volute and cone shells of the Eocene epoch, and the gracefully sculptured ammonites of the Secondary period, created that man might ages afterwards admire them in his cabinet? Few objects are more beautiful than the minute siliceous cases of the diatomaceæ: were these created that they might be examined and admired under the higher powers of the microscope? The beauty in this latter case, and in many others, is apparently wholly due to symmetry of growth. Flowers rank amongst the most beautiful productions of nature;
they have
→become through natural selection beautiful, or rather
conspicuous in contrast with the
→greenness of the leaves,
that they
observed
by
I have come to this conclusion from finding it an invariable rule that when a flower is fertilised by the wind it never has a gaily-coloured corolla.
plants habitually produce two kinds of flowers; one kind open and coloured so as to attract insects; the other
not coloured, destitute of nectar, and never visited by insects.
→We may safely
conclude that, if insects had
→never existed
on the face of the earth,
|
