We were looking at some mute swans on Bolam Lake, and speculating whether their beauty was what made them a protected species, and stopped (most) humans eating them (as reflected by various laws restricting their consumption to the monarch and a few others).
There seems to be an innate sense of the sacredness of lovely, sweet, things; a reluctance to damage beauty, to mar perfection.
We hesitate even to put footsteps on the flawless white smoothness of fresh snow.
There may also be a particular reluctance to kill (and perhaps eat) 'cute' young animals - lambs, calves, puppies, kittens.
Of course this sense of sacredness can be overcome - by need, such as hunger; or by (evil) counter-impulses to mar and damage, dominate and destroy beauty - and other kinds of goodness.
But a sense of the sacredness of loveliness does seem to be there, built-in.
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