In his treatise on insanity Professor Krafft-Ebing shows
that in degeneration of the brain the esthetic and moral qualities are
among the first to disappear. It is the same with normal man when he
descends into a lower sphere. Zoller relates (III., 68) that when
Europeans arrive in Africa they find the women so ugly they can hardly
look at them without a feeling of repulsion. Gradually they become
habituated to their sight, and finally they are glad to accept them as
companions. Stanley has an eloquent passage on the same topic (_II. I.
F.L_., 265):
"The eye that at first despised the unclassic face of the
black woman of Africa soon loses its regard for fine lines
and mellow pale color; it finds itself ere long lingering
_wantonly_ over the inharmonious and heavy curves of a
negroid form, and looking lovingly on the broad,
unintellectual face, and into jet eyes that never flash with
the dazzling love-light that makes poor humanity beautiful."
The word I have italicized explains it all. The sense of personal
beauty is displaced again by the concupiscence which had held its
place in the early history of mankind.
MORAL UGLINESS
To realize fully what such a relapse may mean, read what Galton says
(123) of the Hottentots. They have
"that peculiar set of features which is so characteristic of
bad characters in England, and so general among prisoners
that it is usually, I believe, known by the name of the
'felon-face;' I mean that they have prominent cheek-bones,
bullet-shaped head, cowering but restless eyes, and heavy
sensual lips, and added to this a shackling dress and
manner.
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