652 THE DESCENT OF MAN. 



It is probable that nearly the same emotions, but much 

 weaker and far less complex, are felt by birds when the 

 male pours forth his full volume of song, in rivalry with 

 other males, to captivate the female. Love is still the 

 commonest theme of our songs. As Herbert Spencer re- 

 marks, " music arouses dormant sentiments of which we 

 had not conceived the possibility, and do not know the 

 meaning; or, as Richter says, tells us of things we have not 

 seen and shall not see." Conversely, when vivid emotions 

 are felt and expressed by the orator, or even in common 

 speech, musical cadences and rhythm are instictively used. 

 The negro in Africa when excited often bursts forth in 

 song; ^^ another will reply in song, while the company, as 

 if touched by a musical wave, murmur a chorus in perfect 

 unison."* Even monkeys express strong feelings in dif- 

 ferent tones anger and impatience by low, fear and pain 

 by high notes. \ The sensations and ideas thus excited in 

 us by music, or expressed by the cadences of oratory, appear 

 from their vagueness, yet depth, like mental reversions to 

 the emotions and thoughts of a long past age. 



All these facts witli respect to music and impassioned 

 speech become intelligible to a certain extent, if we may 

 assume that musical tones and rhythm were used by our 

 half-human ancestors, during the season of courtship, 

 when animals of all kinds are excited not only by love, but 

 by the strong passions of jealousy, rivalry, and triumph. 

 From the deeply laid principle of inherited associations, 

 musical tones in this case would be likely to call up 

 vaguely and indefinitely the strong emotions of a long-past 

 age. As we have every reason to suppose that articulate 

 speech is one of the latest, as it certainly is the highest, of 

 the arts acquired by man, and as the instinctive power of 

 producing musical notes and rhythms is developed low 

 down in the animal series, it would be altogether opposed 

 to the principle of evolution, if we were to admit that 

 man's musical capacity has been developed from the tones 

 used in impassioned speech. We must suppose that the 

 rhythms and cadences of oratory are derived from previously 



*Winwood Reade, "The Martyrdom of Man," 1872, p. 441, and 

 " African Sketch-book," 1873, vol. ii, p. 313. 

 f Rengger, " Saugethiere von Paraguay?" s. 49. 



