an uneducated woman, but a cultured
woman seldom marries a laborer.

It is especially among savages that the woman prefers the man who is
strongest, most skillful, most ardent, and most audacious. Heroes
always haunt the minds of women, who love to throw themselves at the
head of conquerors. The ideal of certain women in Borneo is a husband
who has killed many enemies and possesses their heads (head-hunters of
Borneo). This psychological trait responds to natural selection, for
the women obtain by this custom better protectors and stronger
children.

On the other hand, man looks instinctively for a young, healthy and
well-developed woman. It is on this basis that Greek art formed Eros
and Aphrodite, designating the latter as goddess of both love and
beauty.

=Conception of Beauty.=--The conception of beauty is very relative.
The Australians laugh at our long noses and the natives of
Cochin-China at our white teeth and red cheeks. Certain savage women
bind their legs below the knees to make them swell, this effect being
part of their idea of beauty. The Chinese admire the deformed feet of
their women and their prominent cheek bones. In each nation the
conception of beauty generally corresponds to the ideal type of the
race, for both sexes. As a general rule muscle is admired in man and
fullness of figure in woman. The Hottentots like women's breasts to be
so pendulous that they can throw them over shoulder, and suckle the
infants carried on their backs; they also admire the elongated lips of
the vulva.

There are, therefore, few general typical characters of sexual
preference; these are especially the ideal type of the race and the
health of both sexes, voluptuous forms and grace in women, muscular
strength and dexterity in men. Everything else is relative and
variable, and depends on the local point of view, customs, race,
individual taste, etc.

Thus, according to the conception of aesthetics, tattooing, the
arrangement of the hair and beard, deformations of the nose, cranium,
or feet, are admired by different peoples. Each race extols its own
peculiarities; the European compares a woman's breasts to snow, the
Malay to gold, etc. The natives of Coromandel paint their gods black
and their devils white, while in Europe it is the reverse.

The association of love with beauty is not based on aesthetic
sentiments, for the latter are disinterested, while the original
instinct of love is interested. The association o