view, we find that beauty here is by no means of
invariable, or even of general, occurrence. There is no loveliness about
an oyster or a lob-worm; parasites, as a rule, are positively ugly, and
they constitute a good half of all animal species. The truth seems to
be, when we look attentively at the matter, that in all cases where
beauty does occur in these lower forms of animal life, its presence is
owing to one of two things--either to the radiate form, or to the bright
tints. Now, seeing that the radiate form is of such general occurrence
among these lower animals--appearing over and over again, with the
utmost insistence, even among groups widely separated from one another
by the latest results of scientific classification--seeing this, it
becomes impossible to doubt that the radiate form is due to some
morphological reasons of wide generality. Whether these reasons be
connected with the internal laws of growth, or to the external
conditions of environment, I do not pretend to suggest. But I feel safe
in saying that it cannot possibly be due to any design to secure beauty
for its own sake. The very generality of the radiate form is in itself
enough to suggest that it must have some physical, as distinguished from
an aesthetic, explanation; for, if the attainment of beauty had here been
the object, surely it might have been even more effectually accomplished
by adopting a greater variety of typical forms--as, for instance, in the
case of flowers.

Coming then, lastly, to the case of brilliant tints in the lower
animals, Mr. Darwin has soundly argued that there is nothing forced or
improbable in the supposition that organic compounds, presenting as they
do such highly complex and such varied chemical constitutions, should
often present brilliant colouring _incidentally_. Considered merely as
colouring, there is nothing in the world more magnificent than arterial
blood; yet here the colouring is of purely utilitarian significance. It
is of the first importance in the chemistry of respiration; but is
surely without any meaning from an aesthetic point of view. For the
colour of the cheeks, and of the flesh generally, in the _white_ races
of mankind, could have been produced quite as effectually by the use of
pigment--as in the case of certain monkeys. Now the fact that in the
case of blood, as in that of many other highly coloured fluids and
solids throughout the animal kingdom, the colour is _concealed_, is
surely suffi