In the matter of clothing this charm of disparity reaches its
highest point, and it has constantly happened that men have even called in
the aid of religion to enforce a distinction which seemed to them so
urgent[195]. One of the greatest of sex allurements would be lost and the
extreme importance of clothes would disappear at once if the two sexes
were to dress alike; such identity of dress has, however, never come about
among any people.
FOOTNOTES:
[171] L. da Vinci, _Frammenti_, selected by Solmi, pp. 177-180.
[172] Westermarck, who accepts the "charm of disparity," gives references,
_History of Human Marriage_, p. 354.
[173] _Descent of Man_. Part II, Chapter XVIII.
[174] Bloch (_Beitraege zur AEtiologie der Psychopathia Sexualis_, Teil II,
pp. 260 et seq.) refers to the tendency to admixture of races and to the
sexual attraction occasionally exerted by the negress and sometimes the
negro on white persons as evidence in favor of such charm of disparity. In
part, however, we are here concerned with vague statements concerning
imperfectly known facts, in part with merely individual variations, and
with that love of the exotic under the stimulation of civilized conditions
to which reference has already been made (p.
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