CHAPTER XXVI.
During the winter following the departure of my brother, I passed many
of my leisure hours in his room painting the pictures in the "Voyage
to Polynesia" which he had given me. With great care I first colored
the flowers and the groups of birds. After that I painted the men.
When I came to color the two young Tahitian girls who were standing at
the edge of the sea (the illustrator had been inspired to depict them
as nymphs) I made them white, all white and pink like a pretty little
doll--I thought them very beautiful done so.
It was reserved for me to learn later than their color is different,
and their charms quite otherwise.
My ideas of beauty have changed a great deal since that time, and it
would have astonished me very much if I had then been told what faces
I was to find most charming in the strange course of my later life.
But almost all children are under the dominion of some fancy which
dies out when they become men and women.
The majority of people, during the period of their innocence and
youth, similarly admire the same type; sweet, regular features, and
the fresh pink and white tints. Only at a later time does their
estimate of what constitutes beauty vary, then it accords with the
culture of their spirit, and especially does it follow in the wake of
their developing intelligence.
