CHAPTER III. 



DANCER AND MUSICIAN. 



670. In an essay on &quot; The Origin and Function of 

 Music/ first published in 1857, I emphasized the psycho- 

 physical law that muscular movements in general are origi 

 nated by feelings in general. Be the movements slight or 

 violent, be they those of the whole body or of special parts, 

 and be the feelings pleasurable or painful, sensational or 

 emotional, the first are always results of the last : at least, 

 after excluding those movements which are reflex and in 

 voluntary. And it was there pointed out that as a conse 

 quence of this psycho-physical law, the violent muscular 

 motions of the limbs which cause bounds and gesticulations, 

 as well as those strong contractions of the pectoral and vocal 

 muscles which produce shouting and laughter, become the 

 natural language of great pleasure. 



In the actions of lively children who on seeing in the dis 

 tance some indulgent relative, run up to him, joining one 

 another in screams of delight and breaking their run with 

 leaps, there are shown the roots from which simultaneously 

 arise those audible and visible manifestations of joy which 

 culminate in singing and dancing. It needs no stretch of 

 imagination to see that when, instead of an indulgent rela 

 tive met by delighted children, we have a conquering chief 

 or king met by groups of his people, there will almost cer 

 tainly occur saltatory and vocal expressions of elated feel 

 ing; and that these must become, by implication, signs of 



201 



