X.] IN ANIMALS AND MAN ^'i^ 



improvement from times immemorial. But in these days we 

 know how to employ it more fully because we have trained it 

 to higher achievement from the very beginning of life. The 

 musical talent, like every other, is capable of vast improvement 

 by life-long training. I well remember hearing for the first 

 time, as a boy of thirteen, a great performance— the Pastoral 

 Symphony of Beethoven. How clear and distinct is the 

 meaning of such a composition now that we are accustomed to 

 hear far more intricately written orchestral works ! I was even 

 then impressed by the mighty ocean of music, and listened 

 with the greatest interest ; but I was unable to disentangle the 

 theme from the maze of notes and to understand its ideas. 

 It was only by practice of my mental sense, through frequently 

 listening to this symphony, that my power of musical percep- 

 tion acquired the capacity of picking out, and distinguishing, 

 particular passages more and more clearly from the totality of 

 the composition, and placing those passages into their due 

 relation to the swell of the waves of music which surged along 

 beside them. 



Although the average musical faculty has not undergone any 

 increase, in the course of ages, it must at one time have 

 originated ; and the question arises whether we can explain 

 this from a scientific standpoint. How can we conceive the 

 existence of a musical sense ? 



Attempts in this direction have been repeatedly made, not 

 only since the doctrine of evolution has become prevalent, but 

 also during past centuries. The able psychologist C. Stumpf 

 has recently directed attention to the fact that the question of 

 the origin of music greatly occupied men's minds, especially 

 in France, during the middle of the last century. Jean Jacques 

 Rousseau had already formed the opinion that music originated 

 in language, in excited speech, a view that was simultaneously 

 brought forward in Germany by Scheibe. This hypothesis 

 must have been forgotten later on, or Herbert Spencer would 

 never have enunciated and supported it without reference to 

 his predecessors. It has met with little acceptance, and has 

 been refuted in detail ; it may now be looked upon as an 

 abandoned position. This can hardly be said of the hypothesis 

 brought forward by Darwin, who held the antagonistic view^ 

 that song is older than language, and arose by sexual selection. 



