184).
[175] In this connection the exceptional case of Tennyson is of interest.
He was born and bred in the very fairest part of England (Lincolnshire),
but he himself and the stock from which he sprang were dark to a very
remarkable degree. In his work, although it reveals traces of the
conventional admiration for the fair, there is a marked and unusual
admiration for distinctly dark women, the women resembling the stock to
which he himself belonged. See Havelock Ellis, "The Color Sense in
Literature," _Contemporary Review_, May, 1896.
[176] It is noteworthy that in the _Round-About_, already referred to,
although no man expresses a desire to meet a short woman, when he refers
to announcements by women as being such as would be likely to suit him,
the persons thus pointed out are in a notable proportion short.
[177] It has been discussed by F.J. Debret, _La Selection Naturelle dans
l'espece humaine_ (These de Paris), 1901. Debret regards it as due to
natural selection.
[178] "Heredite de la Couleur des Yeux dans l'espece humaine," _Archives
des Sciences physiques et naturelles_, ser. iii, vol. xii, 1884, p. 109.
[179] _Revue Scientifique_, Jan., 1891.
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