Where does the beauty reside?

Alice showed two baskets filled with apples, and asked, " Which one does have more apples?". 

Chintu after counting replied, "Left one.".

Next Alice showed two bottles of water and asked, " Which one does have more now?". 

Chintu replied, " The blue one".

Then, Alice, this time showed two flowers and asked, " Which one is more beautiful?".

Chintu took some time, but couldn't answer. 

Alice: What's wrong?

Chintu: I can't figure out which is more beautiful?

Alice: But you did well in the first two questions, what happened now? 

Chintu: In the earlier cases I had numbers to compare, I could count the number of apples and compare the numbers, I could measure the volume and compare the numbers, but how to count beauty? Without a number how can I compare?

Alice smiled.

Chintu is right in his question. Every time, the question of  'which one is more/less' we encounter, we associate a number to each of the subjects and then compare those numbers to answer the question. For example, we compare volumes to say which tank has more water, temperatures to say which room is cooler, speeds to say which car is faster, and so on. But there are many subjects that don't have the attribute of measurement. Beauty is one of them. But still, almost everyone has an answer to which actress is more beautiful. How do they do it? How do they measure beauty (Certainly they must be smarter than Chintu)?

A part of the answer may come from evolution. For an organism to have better chances of survival, having a pair of each important organ is important. Hence we have a pair of eyes, kidneys, lungs, etc. And they need to be symmetrical. Hence one of the characteristics of living is symmetry. And as a living being, for higher chances of survival, we need to be efficient at identifying other livings. So it is possible that our brains have evolved over time to recognize symmetry. And we attach symmetry to beauty. So the degree of symmetry maybe is how we measure beauty.

But in most cases, beauty has been a subjective matter. To a child, his/her parents look most beautiful. To a mother, her child. In some way, beauty is the reflection of the characters/traits, a person feels to be ideal. That's why the ideal being and most beautiful being, both are the same for many humans, GOD. Beauty is our own ideal version of the characters. It is the way we want to see things around. So the beauty resides not in the object, but the observer. It's the canvas that makes a masterpiece. 

Chintu as usual is left confused.