The Descent of Man

in regard to the Polynesians, in 'Anthropolog.
Review,' April 1870, pp. 185, 191.)
We thus see how widely the different races of
man differ in their taste for the beautiful. In
every nation sufficiently advanced to have made
effigies of their gods or of their deified rulers,
the sculptors no doubt have endeavoured
to express their highest ideal of beauty and
grandeur. (67. Ch. Comte has remarks to this
effect in his 'Traite de Legislation,' 3rd ed. 1837,
p. 136.) Under this point of view it is well to
compare in our mind the Jupiter or Apollo of
the Greeks with the Egyptian or Assyrian statues;
and these with the hideous bas-reliefs on
the ruined buildings of Central America.
I have met with very few statements opposed
to this conclusion. Mr. Winwood Reade, however,
who has had ample opportunities for observation,
not only with the negroes of the West
Coast of Africa, but with those of the interior
who have never associated with Europeans, is