336 SEXUAL selection: man. PartIL 



Dr. Seemann observes, greater intensity of feelino^ in a 

 single musical note than in pages of writing. Xearly the 

 same emotions, but much weaker and less complex, are 

 probably felt by birds when tlie male pours forth liis full 

 volume of song, in rivalry with other males, for the sake 

 of caj^tivating the female. Love is still the commonest 

 theme of our own songs. As Herbert Spencer remarks, 

 music "arouses dormant sentiments of which we had not 

 " conceived tlie possibility, and do not know the meaning; 

 '' or, as Kichter says, tells us of things we have not seen 

 " and shall not see." "^ Conversely, when vivid emotions 

 are felt and expressed by the orator or even in common 

 speech, musical cadences and rhythm are instinctively 

 used. Moakeys also express strong feelings in different 

 tones — anger and impatience by low, — fear and pain by 

 hio-h notes.^* The sensations and ideas excited in us 

 by music, or by the cadences of impassioned oratory, 

 appear from their vagueness, yet depth, like mental re- 

 versions to the emotions and thoughts of a long-past age. 

 All these facts with respect to music become to a 

 certain extent intelligible if we may assume that 

 musical tones and rhvthm were used bv the half- 



^^ Sec the very interesting discussion on the Origin and Function of 

 Music, by Mr. Herbert Spencer, in his collected ' Essays,' 185S, p. 

 359. Mr. Spencer comes to an exactly ojiposite conclusion to that at 

 which I have arrived. He concludes that the cadences used in emo- 

 tional speech afford tlie foundation from which music has been 

 developed ; whilst I conclude that musical notes and rhythm were first 

 acquired by the male or female progenitors of mankind for the sake of 

 charming the opposite sex. Thu.s musical tones became firmly associated 

 with some of the strongest passions an animal is capable of feeling, 

 and are consequently used instinctively, or through association, when 

 strong emotions are expressed in speech, Mr. Spencer does not offer 

 any satisfactory explanation, nor can I, why high or deep notes should 

 be expressive, both with man and the low^er animals, of certain emotions. 

 Mr. Spencer gives also an interesting discussion on the relations 

 between poetry, recitative, and song. 



^^ Eengger, ' Saugethiere von Paraguay,' s. 49. 



