Alfred Russel Wallace : Alfred Wallace : A. R. Wallace :
Russel Wallace : Alfred Russell Wallace (sic)
Discussion of 'On the Scientific Value of Beauty'
(S213: 1872)
Editor Charles H. Smith's Note: Third party rendering of comments Wallace made on 'On the
Scientific Value of Beauty,' a paper by F. T. Mott read at a meeting of the Dept. of Zoology and
Botany, Section D, Biology, of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (20 August
1872, Brighton). Reported on page 275 of the 31 August 1872 issue of Athenæum. To link
directly to this page, connect with: http://people.wku.edu/charles.smith/wallace/S213.htm
Mr. F. T. Mott, in a paper 'On the Scientific Value of Beauty,' assuming physical beauty to
correspond to climax of maturity in any line of development amongst organisms, though that
degrees of beauty would serve as measures of grade of development.
Mr. Wallace pointed out that the original germ of beauty in some remote ancestral organism
might be a mere accidental circumstance. The idea of the beautiful would, however, go on
developing in the same line as the evolution of animals themselves. In this way it was
accountable that animals lower than ourselves should take pleasure in the same colours and
outlines as we did.--Sir J. Lubbock remarked, that if there were many beautiful things in Nature,
there were many also that were undeniably ugly.
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