ORDER OF DEVEL0P:MENT OF THE PRT^VFAL SHAPING 



ARTS/^ 



Bv W, H. Holmes. 



Modern science has g-one far toward establishing the proposition 

 that the human race, like the various other groups of sentient beings, 

 is the product of evolutional processes, and the student of history has 

 added the corollary that human culture has likewise developed through 

 a long series of progressive stages from intinitesimal germs up to the 

 present complex and wonderful conditions. The history of culture 

 can not, therefore, be complete until the course of its development 

 has been traced back to the remotest beginnings. The phenomena of 

 art are the tangible representatives of human progress and achieve- 

 ment, and upon these we are almost wholly dependent for an insight 

 into the initial stages of history. Furthermore, there is a shadowy 

 interval at the very beginning of culture history unrepresented by 

 art remains. Into this space we seek to extend our vision by the aid 

 of rays borrowed from other branches of science. 



Assuming the general uniformity of nature's genetic processes, we 

 conclude that in the beginning there was a period of rudimentary or 

 instinctive use of materials during which our race carried on its activi- 

 ties much as the bird builds her nest of sticks and grass and the 

 badger burrows a home in the ground. But the time must have come 

 when the hand of this creature, man, was so developed and his brain 

 so matured that articles supplied b}' nature, such as sticks and stones, 

 were held in the hand for throwing, striking, and rubbing. These 

 things became implements, multiplying the powers of the hand and 

 finally giving man dominion over nature. 



The first stage of implement using would consist in the employment 

 of articles furnished b}^ nature. The second stage would be entered 

 upon when the things used began to be modified in shape designedly 

 to increase their efficienc}'. The passage from the tirst to the second 

 stage would be made possible by unintentional alterations of the 

 primal utensils brought about through use, and the observation of the 

 ])rocesses of modification ))y creatures able to profit by these observa- 

 tions. This stage would witness the beginning of those manual opera- 

 tions to which we give the name "the shaping arts." It is these tirst 

 necessary steps in art, weak and hesitating and almost infinitely slow 

 as they must have been, that more than any others demand the atten- 

 tion of the student of historv. 



"From the Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement ( if Science, 



Vol. XLII, 1894. 



501 



