ip.

The abhorrence of incest is an interesting and significant phenomenon from
our present point of view, because it instructively points out to us the
limits to that charm of parity which apparently makes itself felt to some
considerable extent in the constitution of the sexual ideal and still more
in the actual homogamy which seems to predominate over heterogamy. This
homogamy is, it will be observed, a _racial_ homogamy; it relates to
anthropological characters which mark stocks. Even in this racial field,
it is unnecessary to remark, the homogamy attained is not, and could not
be, absolute; nor would it appear that such absolute racial homogamy is
even desired. A tall man who seeks a tall woman can seldom wish her to be
as tall as himself; a dark man who seeks a dark woman, certainly will not
be displeased at the inevitably greater or less degree of pigment which he
finds in her eyes as compared to his own.

But when we go outside the racial field this tendency to homogamy
disappears at once. A man marries a woman who, with slight, but agreeable,
variations, belongs to a like stock to himself. The abhorrence of incest
indicates that even the sexual attraction to people of the same stock has
its limits, for it is not strong enough to overcome the sexual
indifference between persons of near kin. The desire for novelty shown in
this sexual indifference to near kin and to those who have been housemates
from childhood, together with the notable sexual attractiveness often
possessed by a strange youth or maiden who arrives in a small town or
village, indicates that slight differences in stock, if not, indeed, a
positive advantage from this point of view, are certainly not a
disadvantage. When we leave the consideration of racial differences to
consider sexual differences, not only do we no longer find any charm of
parity, but we find that there is an actual charm of disparity. At this
point it is necessary to remember all that has been brought forward in
earlier pages[191] concerning the emphasis of the secondary sexual
characters in the ideal of beauty. All those qualities which the woman
desires to see emphasized in the man are the precise opposite of the
qualities which the man desires to see emphasized in the woman. The man
must be strong, vigorous, energetic, hairy, even rough, to stir the
primitive instincts of the woman's nature; the woman who satisfies this
man must be smooth, rounded, and gentle. It would be hop