new ideal of
unobtrusive simplicity, extreme cleanliness (with avoidance of
perfumes), and exquisite good taste; he abhorred all
eccentricity, and may be said to have constituted a tradition
which Englishmen have ever since sought, more or less
successfully to follow; he was idolized by women.

It may be added that the attentiveness of women to tactile
contacts is indicated by the frequency with which in them it
takes on morbid forms, as the _delire du contact_, the horror of
contamination, the exaggerated fear of touching dirt. (See, e.g.,
Raymond and Janet, _Les Obsessions et la Psychasthenie_.)

FOOTNOTES:

[168] William Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_, second edition, 1832, vol.
1, p. 215.

[169] Stendhal (_De l'Amour_, Chapter XVIII) has some remarks on this
point, and refers to the influence over women possessed by Lekain, the
famous actor, who was singularly ugly. "It is _passion_," he remarks,
"which we demand; beauty only furnishes _probabilities_."

[170] The charm of a woman's garments to a man is often due in part to
their expressiveness in rendering impressions of energy, vivacity, or
languor. This has often been realized by the poets, and notably by
Herrick, who was singularly sensitive to these qualities in a woman's
garments.

IV.

The Alleged Charm of Disparity in Sexual Attraction--The Admiration for
High Stature--The Admiration for Dark Pigmentation--The Charm of
Parity--Conjugal Mating--The Statistical Results of Observation as Regards
General Appearance, Stature, and Pigmentation of Married
Couples--Preferential Mating and Assortative Mating--The Nature of the
Advantage Attained by the Fair in Sexual Selection--The Abhorrence of
Incest and the Theories of its Cause--The Explanation in Reality
Simple--The Abhorrence of Incest in Relation to Sexual Selection--The
Limits to the Charm of Parity in Conjugal Mating--The Charm of Disparity
in Secondary Sexual Characters.

When we are dealing with the senses of touch, smell, and hearing it is
impossible at present, and must always remain somewhat difficult, to
investigate precisely the degree and direction of their influence in
sexual selection. We can marshal in order--as has here been attempted--the
main facts and considerations which clearly indicate that there is and
must be such an influence, but we cannot even attempt to estimate its
definite direction and still less to measure it precisely.