Page:Personal Beauty and Racial Betterment.djvu/29

 Rh is highly probable that in ancient times the negative rule against abnormal size did not apply, since every increase in physical power, even if carried to the extreme of gigantic development, was a distinct advantage.

It is sometimes alleged that the woman’s preference is not for the large man in an absolute sense, but for the man larger than herself; either because of a natural wish for a husband to whom she is inferior; to whom she can give a tribute of worship and deference; or else, that it has developed through the necessity of the greater strength on the part of the man in order that he might capture the woman, and carry her away from her parental habitat, to his own dwelling. Both of these suggestions are highly unplausible. Marriage by capture, although a good hypothesis for popular writers, probably never was at any time an institution of any more importance or actuality than it is at the present day. Psychologically, the theory is based on the assumption that woman is naturally opposed to the marital relation, which assumption is a merry jest, to say the least. Historically, there is no evidence for the theory of capture except as a limited and temporary phenomenon. As for the supposition of an unexplained instinct to prefer a dominant partner, I see no support for it, except in so far as the practical consideration I have advanced may itself