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.