SECONDARY SEXUAL CHARACTERS. (J53 



developed musical powers.* We can thus understand how 

 it is tliat music, dancing, song, and poetry are such very 

 ancient arts. We may go even furtlier than this, and, as 

 remarked in a former chapter, believe that musical sounds 

 afforded one of the bases for the development of language, f 

 As the males of several quadrumanous animals have their 

 vocal organs much more developed than in the females, and 

 as a gibbon, one of the anthropomorphous apes, pours 

 forth a whole octave of musical notes and may be said to 

 sing, it appears probable that the progenitors of man, 

 either the males or females or both sexes, before acquiring 

 the power of expressing their mutual love in articulate 

 language, endeavored to charm each other with musical 

 notes and rhythm. So little is known about the use of the 

 voice by the Quadrumana during the season of love, that 

 we have no means of judging whether the habit of singing 

 was first acquired by our male or female ancestors. W^omen 

 are generally thought to possess sweeter voices than men, 

 and as far as this serves as any guide, we may infer that 

 they first acquired musical powers in order to attract the 

 other sex. I But, if so, this must have occured long ago, 

 before our ancestors had become sufficiently human to treat 

 and value their women merely as useful slaves. The impas- 



*See the very interesting discussion on the " Origin and Function 

 of Music," by Mr. Herbert Spencer, in his collected "Essays," 1858, 

 p. 359. Mr. Spencer comes to an exactly opposite conclusion to that 

 at which I have arrived. He concludes, as did Diderot formerly, 

 that the cadences used in emotional speech afford the foundation 

 from which music has been developed; while I conclude that musical 

 notes and rhythms were first acquired by the male or female progen- 

 itors of mankind for the sake of charming the opposite sex. Thus 

 musical tones became firmly associated with some of the strongest 

 l)assions an animal is capable of feeling, and are consequently used 

 instinctively, or through association when strong emotions are 

 expressed in speech. Mr. Spencer does not offer any satisfactory 

 explanation, nor can I, why high or deep notes should be expressive, 

 both with man and the lower animals, of certain emotions. Mr. 

 Spencer gives also an interesting discussion on the relations between 

 poetry, recitative and song. 



f I find in Lord Monboddo's "Origin of Language," vol. i, (1774), 

 p. 469, that Dr. Blacklock likewise thought "that the first language 

 among men was music, and that before our ideas were expressed by 

 articulate sounds they were communicated by tones varied according 

 to different degrees of gravity and acuteness." 



^See an interesting discussion on this subject, by Hackel, " Gener- 

 elle Morph," B. ii, 1866, s. 246. 



