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next generation. The principle of utility would be the
measure of that which was best. The sportsman would
naturally breed from the swiftest greyhounds with the
best “ staying power,” and from the staunchest pointer
who best understood his business. But in this breed
improving selection, we may discern, if I mistake not,
three gradations:—(i) There would be those who are
content to select with a view to utility alone, on the
principle of the adage, “ Handsome is as handsome does.”
(2) Every useful purpose which an animal fulfils tends to
alter its form. There is, for example, a form which is
best adapted for swift motion, as seen in the greyhound
and the race horse, just as there is a form of vessel most
adapted for fast sailing. Hence it would be natural to
aim at the perfection of this form as an outward symbol
of practical utility. And it is quite conceivable that the
form which was perfect from the point of view of utility,
might also come to be regarded as beautiful from an
aesthetic point of view. Without contending that the
sense of the beautiful has its origin in utilitarian notions,
it is obvious that an object may be beautiful or not in
our eyes according as it is associated with ideas of utility;
as when we admire the colour on the cheek of beauty,
because it is the accompaniment of physical health, and
look with disgust upon the same colour on the nose of
the inebriate, because it is associated in our mind with
excess and disease. This would tend to a still more
definite selection, the principle of utility and the principle
of taste co-operating to produce one common result.
(3) But sometimes we find that in the production of use
ful animals, the useful and the beautiful have both to be
introduced, even when the ornamental has no necessary
association with utility, or the breeder will not find pur
chasers. This is especially true with regard to riding-horses.