74 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



is like the original, but not in all respects, even from an exterior 

 and visual point of view, the same as the original. 



It remains now to show that the grouping offered here observes 

 the genetic principle, and arranges the fine arts in the order of 

 their natural sequence and evolution. Ver-on denies that this is 

 possible, but this conclusion can not be maintained. It is true 

 that we have not in our possession the earliest products of art, so 

 as to be able to prove that any order which we may assign is the 

 actual order of development, but we have the means of showing 

 that the order we have indicated is highly natural and probable. 

 As regards the two main divisions, it is clear that the arts of 

 movement would precede the arts of form, for the arts of move- 

 ment — dancing, music, and poetry — may all be practiced by man 

 without external aids or instruments of any kind, while this is 

 impossible for the arts of form, architecture, sculpture, and paint- 

 ing. We might also cite, in confirmation of this view, the facts 

 derived from the comparative study of man, which show that the 

 arts of movement are practiced among peoples who have no arts 

 of form, or possess these in a less perfect state of advancement 

 than those of the first group. As regards the particular arts 

 embraced in the general scheme, the dance seems to be the most 

 primitive of all, because it is a simple rhythm of the bodily move- 

 ments, which requires nothing else than free limbs and a tendency 

 to bring unused muscles into exercise. The rhythm of bodily 

 motion is naturally accompanied by vocal rhythm, which is rudi- 

 mentary music, and when to this articulate words are added, 

 poetry has begun, although in a very elementary way. As soon 

 as the place where the dance is held begins to be decorated, the 

 building art blossoms into a primitive architecture. When masks 

 are used to represent deities or absent men, or representative 

 figures of these are set up as objects of worship or reverence in 

 the dance, sculpture has its beginning. When such effigies are 

 imitated on a flat surface, by applying the pigments first used 

 upon the bodies of the dancers and then on the graven images, 

 painting as a fine art has its humble origin. Thus, we perceive, 

 there is a natural sequence in the advent of the several arts. 



It is idle to speculate upon the question as to when the fine 

 arts had their origin. As Ve'ron says : " Art came before thought 

 itself. Before he ever attempted to understand or explain the 

 conditions of the world in which he lived, man, open to pleasure 

 through his eyes and ears, sought in combinations of forms, 

 sounds, movements, shadow, and light, for certain special enjoy- 

 ments. Traces of these early aspirations are extant in the recently 

 discovered works of a time when his intellectual activity must 

 have been confined within a very narrow scope. . . . When as yet 

 he possessed neither laws nor social institutions, even then he had 



