X ON THE STUDY OF BIOJ.OGY 277 



distinctions which have been drawn between the 

 lower creatures and ourselves, there is one which 

 is hardly ever insisted on,* but which may be 

 very fitly spoken of in a place so largely devoted 

 to Art as that in which we are assembled. It is 

 this, that while, among various kinds of animals, 

 it is possible to discover traces of all the other 

 faculties of man, especially the faculty of mimicry, 

 yet that particular form of mimicry which shows 

 itself in the imitation of form either by modelling 

 or by drawing, is not to be met with. As far as I 

 know, there is no sculpture or modelling, and de- 

 cidedly no painting or drawing, of animal origin. 

 I mention the fact, in order that such comfort 

 may be derived therefrom as artists may feel in- 

 clined to take. 



If what the biologists tell us is true, it will be 

 needful to get rid of our erroneous conceptions of 

 man, and of his place in nature, and to substitute 

 right ones for them. But it is impossible to form 

 any judgment as to whether the biologists are right 

 or wrong, unless we are able to appreciate the na- 

 ture of the arguments which they have to offer. 



One would almost think this to be a self-evi- 

 dent proposition. I wonder what a scholar would 

 say to the man who should"" undertake to criti- 

 cise a difficult passage in a Greek play, but who 

 obviously had not acquainted himself with the 



* I think that my friend, Professor Allman, was the first 

 to draw attention to it. 



