As a slight test alike of the supposed "charm of disparity" as well as of the general degree in which tall and short persons are sought as mates by those of the opposite sex I have examined a series of entries in the _Round-About_, a publication issued by a club, of which the president is Mr. W.T. Stead, having for its object the purpose of promoting correspondence, friendship, and marriage between its members. There are two classes, of entries, one inserted with a view to "intellectual friendship," the other with a view to marriage. I have not thought it necessary to recognize this distinction here; if a man describes his own physical characteristics and those of the lady he would like as a friend, I assume that, from the point of view of the present inquiry, he is much on the same footing as the man who seeks a wife. In the series of entries which I have examined 35 men and women state approximately the height of the man or woman they seek to know; 30 state in addition their own height. The results are expressed in the table on the following page. Although the cases are few, the results are, in two main respects, sufficiently clear without multiplication of data. In the first place, those who seek parity, whether men or women, are in a majority over those who seek disparity. In the second place, the existence of any disparity at all is due only to the universal desire to find a tall person. Not one man or woman sets down shortness as his or her ideal. The very fact that no man in these initial announcements ventures to set himself down as short (although a considerable proportion describe themselves as tall) indicates a consciousness that shortness is undesirable, as also does the fact that the women very frequently describe themselves as tall. The same charm of disparity which has been supposed to rule in selective attraction as regards stature has also been assumed as regards pigmentation. The fair, it is said, are attracted to the dark, the dark to the fair. Again, it must be said that this common assumption is not confirmed either by introspection or by any attempt to put the matter on a statistical basis.[174] WOMEN. MEN. TOTALS. Tall women seek tall men.. 8 Tall men seek tall women.. 6 14 Short women seek short men 0 Short men seek short women 0 0 Medium-sized women seek Medium-sized men seek medium-sized men ....... 0 medium-sized women .... 3 3 Seek parity........... 8 Seek parity........... 9 17 Tall women seek short men. 0 Tall men seek short women. 0 0 Short women seek tall men. 4 Short men seek tall women. 0 4 Medium-sized woman seeks Medium-sized men seek tall tall man................ 1 women .................. 8 9 Seek disparity........ 5 Seek disparity........ 8 13