io THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



respect of various appliances (especially for prehension), and in 

 respect of intelligence, are more evolved than birds. Thus it is 

 obviously a mistake to assume that whatever is more highly 

 evolved in general character is more highly evolved in every 

 trait. 



Of Mr. Gurney's several objections which are based on this 

 mistake here is an example. He says " Loudness though a fre- 

 quent is by no means a universal or essential element, either of 

 song or of emotional speech" (p. 107). Under one of its aspects 

 this criticism is self -destructive ; for if, though both relatively 

 loud in most cases, song and emotional speech are both character- 

 ized by the occasional use of subdued tones, then this is a further 

 point of kinship between them a kinship which Mr. Gurney seeks 

 to disprove. Under its other aspect this criticism implies the 

 above-described misconception. If in a song, or rather in some 

 part or parts of a song, the trait of loudness is absent, while the 

 other traits of developed emotional utterance are present, it simply 

 illustrates the truth that the traits of a highly-evolved product 

 are frequently not all present together. 



A like answer is at hand to the next objection he makes. It 

 runs thus : 



"In the recitative which he [Mr. Spencer] himself considers naturally and his- 

 torically a step between speech and song, the rapid variation of pitch is impossi- 

 ble, and such recitative is distinguished from the tones even of common speech 

 precisely by being more monotonous " (p. 108). 



But Mr. Gurney overlooks the fact that while, in recitative, some 

 traits of developed emotional utterance are not present, two of its 

 traits are present. One is that greater resonance of tone, caused 

 by greater contraction of the vocal chords, which distinguishes it 

 from ordinary speech. The other is the relative elevation of pitch, 

 or divergence from the medium tones of voice : a trait similarly 

 implying greater strain of certain vocal muscles, resulting from 

 stronger feeling. 



Another difficulty raised by Mr. Gurney he would probably 

 not have set down had he been aware that one character of musi- 

 cal utterance which he thinks distinctive, is a character of all 

 phenomena into which motion enters as a factor. He says: 

 " Now no one can suppose that the sense of rhythm can be derived 

 from emotional speech" (p. 110). Had he referred to the chapter 

 on " The Rhythm of Motion " in First Principles, he would have 

 seen that, in common with inorganic actions, all organic actions 

 are completely or partially rhythmical from appetite and sleep 

 to inspirations and heart-beats ; from the winking of the eyes to 

 the contractions of the intestines ; from the motions of the legs 

 to discharges through the nerves. Having contemplated such 

 facts he would have seen that the rhythmical tendency which is 



