|
be shown that before man appeared, there was less beauty on the face of the earth 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
→been rendered
conspicuous in contrast with the
→green leaves, and in consequence at the same time beautiful, so
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.
→Hence we may
conclude that, if insects had
→not been developed
on the face of the earth,
would not have been decked with beautiful flowers, but would have produced only such poor flowers as
→we see on
our
nut and ash trees,
→on grasses,
spinach, docks, and
→nettles, which are all fertilised through the agency of the wind. A similar line of argument holds good with
→OMIT
fruits; that a ripe strawberry or cherry is as pleasing to the eye as to the
that the gaily-coloured fruit of the spindle-wood tree and the scarlet berries of the holly are beautiful
will be admitted by every one. But this beauty serves merely as a guide to birds and beasts,
→in order that
the fruit may be devoured and the
→manured seeds
disseminated: I infer that this is the case from having as yet found
→no exception to the rule
that
are
→always thus disseminated when embedded
within a fruit of any
is within a fleshy or pulpy
if it be coloured of any brilliant tint, or
rendered conspicuous by being
white or
|
| On the other hand, I willingly admit that a great number of male animals, as all our most gorgeous birds,
some fishes,
mammals, and a host of magnificently coloured
→OMIT
have been rendered beautiful for
sake; but this has been effected
→OMIT
through sexual selection, that
the more beautiful males having been continually preferred by
→the females, and not for the delight of man. So it is with the music of birds. We may infer from all this that a
taste for beautiful colours and for musical sounds runs through a large part of the animal kingdom.
|
