610 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



faculties of the civilized man as inferior to those of the savage. Ex- 

 perience has not confirmed this. What certain organs have lost in one 

 direction, they have got back in another. If our senses have a narrow 

 range, they have gained in firmness of perception. The senses of touch 

 and of taste are in the civilized man extremely subtile. Our power of 

 vision has not a very great range, but we can peruse for many hours 

 together the printed page, a thing which the eye of the savage could 

 never do. If our ear cannot detect the stealthy approach of a wild 

 beast, it can appreciate the nicest shades of difference in musical notes. 

 We cannot climb trees, but a clerk seated at his desk does more work 

 with his hand in one day than a savage in a twelvemonth. Finally, 

 the muscular force of certain Indian tribes has been proved by the dy- 

 namometer to be very considerably less than that of English and French 

 sailors. 



There are faculties which appear to arise full grown, so to speak, 

 when civilization has reached a certain stage, and Avhich do not exist, 

 even in germ, among savages. Such are the faculties of literary and 

 artistic taste. The savage has no leisure for the pleasures of the imagi- 

 nation. A Moliere, a Rembrandt, or a Mozart, would have to expend all 

 his energy under such circumstances in procuring the bare necessa- 

 ries of life. The fine arts are subordinated to the development of the 

 other elements of civilization, but they may also be regarded as the 

 best expression and the most exact measure of the state of a society. 

 A few examples will explain our meaning : 



How has architecture advanced ? Men at first dwelt in hollow 

 trees, in caves, or beneath any chance shelter. Next, they constructed 

 rude houses of stones, branches, or sods. It was only at a later period 

 that they could think of symmetry or regularity. Then came all 

 kinds of ornamentation. At last they came to erect structures without 

 direct utility, for aesthetic purposes merely, such as columns, porticoes, 

 and the like. And so each increase of wealth in a society is followed 

 by a corresponding progress in arts which are rather pleasing than 

 useful. The same holds with respect to literature. At first, men 

 would interchange only thoughts of immediate utility. Next they 

 came imperceptibly to adorn their speech, and then arose history, re- 

 ligion, morality, philosophy, adorned with all the charms of versifica- 

 tion, music, and poesy. It was only at a later period that poetry ap- 

 peared in its own individual character, on the stage, or in the story, as 

 the form in which pure fiction was to be cast, having as its aim to 

 please the imagination, without reference to history, religion, or utility. 

 In a word, art and poetry spring from a superabundance of intellectual 

 energy, and from an exuberance of ideal force. 



The culture of science, as viewed with reference to civilization, is 

 the same thing as the development of the understanding. At first 

 view, we might suppose that scientific truths, when once discovered, 

 constitute a sort of capital, which may be stored up. But this is not 



