X.] IN ANIMALS AND MAN. 69 



a weapon in the great struggle for life. It is evident that the 

 keenest vision is of vast importance for the preservation of the 

 human species. Hence the arts of painting and sculpture are, 

 in the sense above mentioned, merely the incidental accessory 

 performance of a faculty never intended for such a purpose. 



It is quite true that the beginnings of art can be traced far 

 back to the times of the cave-dwellers ; but whenever it began 

 an immense period was required for its development, — a period 

 w^hich must have been especially long in the case of music. 



It is almost impossible to realize that men with such high 

 aesthetic instincts as those possessed by the ancient Greeks could 

 have enjoyed the unisonal effect of accompaniment in the octave ; 

 and we can hardly believe that they were unable to invent 

 music in two parts. And yet a long time elapsed before the 

 gallant troubadours of Provence hit upon the idea of letting the 

 melody be accompanied by another deeper-pitched voice, 

 originally moreover in succession of fourths and fifths, so very 

 unpleasant to us at the present day, but which may even now 

 be occasionally heard in the street music of Brittany. 



It is not my intention to follow the slow and gradual evolution 

 of music; for this has been clearly shown by the excellent work 

 of other writers. But in concluding I wish to repeat that this 

 evolution does not depend upon any increase of the musical 

 faculty or any alteration in the inherent physical nature of man, 

 but solely upon the power of transmitting the intellectual 

 achievements of each generation to those which follow. 



This, more than anything, is the cause of the superiority of 

 man over animals— this, and not merely human faculty, although 

 it may be admitted that the latter is much higher than in 

 animals. And even if we were compelled to believe that human 

 faculty has reached its limits and can never be increased again, 

 even then we need not despair of the almost boundless progress 

 of mankind. For each generation always starts from the 

 acquirements of the preceding one ; and the living child placed 

 from the very first by tradition upon a somewhat greater height 

 of intellectual achievement than that of his predecessors, is 

 then able, with the same powers, to climb yet higher up the 

 steep slope of the most advanced civilization. Hence, even if 

 our intellectual powers have reached the highest possible stage, 

 human civilization will nevertheless advance, however far we 



