ersons, that the variation from the personal type of the
subject is usually only agreeable within narrow limits, and that there is
a very common tendency for persons of totally opposed pigmentary types,
even though they may sometimes be considered to possess a certain aesthetic
beauty, to be regarded as sexually unattractive or even repulsive. With
this feeling may perhaps be associated the feeling, certainly very widely
felt, that one would not like to marry a person of foreign, even though
closely allied, race.

From the same number of the _Round-About_ from which I have
extracted the data on stature, I have obtained corresponding data
on pigmentation, and have embodied them in the following table.
They are likewise very scanty, but they probably furnish as good
a general indication of the drift of ideals in this matter as we
should obtain from more extensive data of the same character.

WOMEN. MEN. TOTALS.

Fair women seek fair men. 2 Fair men seek fair women 2 4
Dark woman seeks dark man 1 Dark men seek dark women 7 8

Seek parity.......... 3 Seek parity......... 9 12

Fair women seek dark men. 4 Fair men seek dark women 3 7
Dark woman seeks fair man 1 Dark men seek fair women 4 5
Medium-colored man seeks
Seek disparity....... 5 dark woman ........... 1 1
Medium-colored man seeks
fair woman ........... 1 1

Seek disparity...... 9 14

Men of unknown color seek
dark women ........... 3 3

It will be seen that in the case of pigmentation there is not as
in the case of stature a decided charm of parity in the formation
of sexual ideals. The phenomenon, however, remains essentially
analogous. Just as in regard to stature there is without
exception an abstract admiration for tall persons, so here,
though to a less marked extent, there is a general admiration for
dark persons. As many as 6 out of 8 women and 14 out of 21 men
seek a dark partner. This tendency ranges itself with the
considerations already brought forward (p. 182), leading us to
believe that, in England at all events, the admiration of
fairness is not efficacious to promote any sexual selection, and
that if there is actual